


Safe

by rintintin20



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Azazel - Freeform, F/M, Gen, I can't make promises, Possible Relationships?, Season/Series 01, and every other season, but especially season one, lots of monsters because that's pretty much what season one is about, maybe in the future, meg - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-10 17:44:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 23,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12304320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rintintin20/pseuds/rintintin20
Summary: She was only fifteen when the Winchesters hunted her family and saved her life, leaving her with no choice but to stay with them until they figured something out. They never did. Years, hunts, and pain all passed, persevered through and moved on from no matter how difficult they were. Until John Winchester disappeared. OC. Follows season one.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! This fic started out on fanfiction, don't worry, same person here.
> 
> I haven't read any similar fics prior to this and last time I did was years ago, so if anything seems similar to something, I promise that it's not on purpose! This first chapter is just background stuff and a bit long, sorry! Hope you all enjoy it anyway :)
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC, Katherine.

* * *

 

**October 2nd, 1998**

  
**Columbia, Missouri**

 

* * *

  
A storm raged outside, rain pouring down and wind whipping the trees. Thunder rumbled just overhead and lightning would strike every couple of minutes, illuminating the dark streets and buildings.

  
Sam and Dean Winchester stomped through each puddle without a care, both of them already soaked to the bone and covered in mud; the latter of the two taking out a key as they trudged up to their motel room door. He shoved the key into the lock impatiently, practically grunting as he pushed the door open and stumbled inside, flicking on the light.

  
"Dad," Sam called out as he followed his brother into the room, shutting the door behind him. All was silent aside from another clap of thunder, and both boys could see that the beds were empty and the bathroom was open and dark. "Huh. He's not back yet. What do you think he's doing?"

  
"Don't know, Sammy. Don't care, Sammy," Dean groaned, kicking off his boots, "It's Dad. He's probably just...doing something. He can take care of himself." He shrugged off his filthy jacket and tossed it onto a chair.

  
"Yeah, I know, but what if he found another...whatever those things were?" Sam sighed.

  
Dean looked over at him, raising an eyebrow. "You wanna go help him?"

  
"...no."

  
"Yeah, that's what I thought. I'm hitting the shower." He walked into the bathroom and turned the light on, ignoring Sam's noises of protests.

  
"Come on, man. Why do you get to shower first?"

  
"Because I'm the oldest."

  
"I'm the smartest."

"What does that have to do with anything—"

Lightning flashed and the door suddenly slammed open, startling Sam and causing Dean to immediately run out of the bathroom, prepared to fight whatever it was that was breaking into their room. Two dark figures, one tall and one a lot smaller, stood in the doorway for only a moment before rushing into the light.

There stood John Winchester, his arm around a girl who looked to be around Sam's age, though you couldn't decipher much beneath her mussed hair and mud-covered form. John lead her to the table, tossing Dean's jacket off of one of the chairs and sitting her down.

"—what the hell, Dad?" Dean managed to spit out after a moment's shock. "You're bringing home strays now? Never thought I'd see the day—"

"Shut up, Dean," John said simply. Dean obeyed immediately, though hardly any time passed before Sam piped up.

"He's right, Dad. We've never brought home anyone before..." He looked at the girl curiously, his brow furrowed. "What's going on?"

John heaved a heavy sigh; one that was often brought out when Sam exasperated him. "Drop it, Sam," was all he said, before he looked at the girl. "What's your name, honey?"

The two brothers immediately looked at each other, Sam mouthing 'honey?' in complete confusion, having never heard his dad talk that way. They looked back at the girl. She looked lost for a moment, like she wasn't all there, before she suddenly looked at John.

She seemed to struggle for a moment, opening and closing her mouth. Finally, after a moment of trying to speak, she uttered softly, "Katherine."

"Katherine. Okay, Katherine," John helped her to her feet, more gentle than he had ever been in years, to Sam and Dean's surprise, "why don't you go in and take a shower? There's towels in there and I'll leave you something to wear. Go on now." He lead her to the bathroom. He turned the shower on for her then left the room, shutting the door and sighing softly.

"Seriously, Dad, what the hell?" Sam asked, interrupting John's rare moment of rest. "You've never done this before. You'd probably give us hell if we did it...what's going on?"

John's face immediately soured. "Watch your tone with me. I'm the authority here, I'll bring someone here if I want to."

"I'm just saying that it's weird! I just wanna know why..."

"Because!" He sighed again, running a hand through his own filthy hair. "It won't be for long, okay?" He looked at Sam, then Dean, who looked just as confused as Sam despite his silence. "So don't worry about it and just...drop it."

"But, Dad—"

"Sam." Dean interrupted, giving him a look, trying to prevent a fight.

"Look, give her one of your shirts or something. Make sure she's okay. I'm going to get a room for her." John went over to his bag of belongings and took out some cash. He could feel the boys' gazes on him. "Just trust me on this. It's only going to be a couple of weeks."

* * *

 

**October 14th, 1998**

**Carmel, Indiana**

 

* * *

 

Nearly a couple of weeks after that, John, Dean, Sam, and Katherine all sat around in a motel room, eating lunch. It was all burgers and fries from some nearby fast food joint; John ate a bite every so often as he looked through the newspaper for strange occurrences, Dean devoured his food like an animal, Sam ate his food rather reluctantly for a growing teenage boy, and Katherine just stared at hers.

She was still there, despite John's promises. He still had yet to explain why he'd taken her in to the boys, and Sam eventually stopped asking and just tried to be kind to the girl. She barely spoke, and barely ate, and stayed at whatever motels they stopped at while they went on a hunt. Sam would sometimes stay with her and enjoyed it far more than hunting, which was part of the reason why he didn't bother pestering his dad about her.

They hardly knew anything about her, but both boys could admit that she was pretty, with dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and innocent features. Though they — even Dean — hadn't thought about it much. It was hard to when she was in their lives under such strange circumstances, and it was clear that she was traumatized from something.

Now, she slowly lifted up a french fry and stared at it. "It's all real."

John, Dean, and Sam, as many horrifying things as they had dealt with, nearly jumped out of their seats at the sound of her voice. She hadn't really said much of anything since she practically whispered her name the first night she was brought there. They all just stared in stunned silence for a moment, but Dean managed to recover first.

"Uh...it's delicious, but it ain't real." That earned him a look from both John and Sam, which he ignored.

Katherine looked up at him, then quickly back down. "No. I...I mean, the things you read about in books, and watch on TV, and see in movies. Monsters...ghosts...all of that. It's real."

There was silence again. John sighed and folded up the newspaper he had been reading. "It's all real. We've dealt with it...firsthand." He shifted awkwardly as Katherine nodded in thought.

"You talk about it so casually. Like it's normal. Like..."

"Like we're used to it." John leaned forward in his seat. "That's because we are. I lost my wife to one of these 'monsters' a long time ago, and I've been going after it ever since." His eyes darkened as he spoke. "We take care of other things along the way...we're hunters. That's why we search for them and we go out on hunts."

"We're like pest control." Dean chuckled to himself. Sam rolled his eyes.

Katherine nodded, furrowing her brow. "I feel like I'm supposed to be in shock and denial, but...I know what I saw." Pain quickly flickered over her face and she looked over at John. "Where do I go from here? I have nothing! I...I have..."

"I know, I know," John quickly interrupted before she could begin to panic. "You told me plenty when I found you—"

"Found her?" Sam stood up, his curiosity coming back full force. "Dad, are you ever going to tell us what this is all about?"

"Sam, is now really the time?" John snapped, glaring at him.

"When is it ever going to be the time? You won't tell us anything!"

"I have had about enough—"

"Please," Katherine spoke the loudest she ever had around them. It was hardly even close to a shout, but it was loud enough that it got through to them. "I'm sorry, but I'm a little scared right now. I don't know what to do..."

Sam looked away bashfully and sat back down, while John returned his attention to her. "I've been trying to think of something these past couple of weeks. You're not old enough for me to let you go out on your own in good conscience...and I don't have time to be putting some kid in foster care. It wouldn't be fair to you anyway. The only thing I can figure, is that you stay with us until we can find something else."

Both Dean and Sam wanted to tell their father, once again, how unlike him this was. But they both stayed silent, knowing that there had to be a damn good reason for him to offer this girl a place with them.

"Not that I don't want to take your offer, but are you sure? You clearly have your lives figured out...you didn't ask to find me..."

"You didn't ask to be found. As long as you don't get in our way and can contribute somehow, I have no problem letting you tag along with us." John looked over at Sam and Dean. "My boys, on the other hand..."

"I don't mind," Sam quickly said. "I'm confused, but I don't mind. I like staying back at the motel with her over hunting anyway..."

Dean sighed and said almost convincingly, "It's cool. It's gonna be weird having a girl around, but it's cool." He was, perhaps, a little upset that their life was going to be shifted, but he didn't dare say anything so vulnerable.

"Good. It wasn't your choice, anyway." John looked at Katherine, nodding. "You'll be fine with us until we figure something out."

* * *

 

**November 5th, 1998**

**Evanston, Wyoming**

 

* * *

 

Katherine had been with them for over a month now, with no sign of any other option for her to go to. Everything seemed to be falling into place; Sam and Dean were getting used to having her around and she was becoming more like herself. With each passing day, the quiet, solemn, fearful girl they had met was replaced with a smart, stubborn, but thoughtful girl. She still had her bad moments because of whatever had happened to her — Sam assumed it had something to do with the hunt that night his dad found her, but he had yet to figure out why that would make her have to stay with them — but she was getting better.

Sam enjoyed having her around, especially because staying behind at the motel with her still got him out of a hunt every now and then. Dean found that he didn't mind the change as much as he thought he would, and he definitely didn't mind having a pretty girl around.

She did as was asked of her. She didn't get in the way of anything they were doing and she helped by looking for any leads for a hunt.

That was what she was doing now, a few newspapers spread out on the bed where she was sitting. Sam sat on the other bed in the room, snacking on something while he looked through one of the newspapers, and John and Dean were out checking on something that sounded like it might be supernatural.

"I can't find anything...I'm not convinced there's anything here. This might just be another pass-through." She was getting good at this whole 'hunter' thing, too, even if she hadn't actually hunted. She knew what to look out for and usually knew whether or not they would have to stay in town or move on somewhere else. She would be lying if she said she wasn't beginning to enjoy it. She was beginning to enjoy the Winchesters, too, as much as she could in her still-fragile state.

"Same here." Sam folded the newspaper up. "Dad's gonna be pissed...but what else is new?"

Katherine looked over at him. "What do we do now? We can't just sit here until Dean and your dad get back..."

"I don't know...we could go out and pick up food. Something that's not on a value menu, maybe?"

"—should we leave the motel when they're not here?"

Sam shrugged, standing up. "Sure, why not? I'm old enough now to go places on my own. I'm not helpless like Dean thinks I am. Besides, we'll stay close and be back in ten minutes."

"—okay." Katherine stood. "I'll go to my room and get on some warmer clothes." When she first stayed with them, John had sent Dean out to pick up a few things from a thrift store for her. Luckily, after a little while, she was able to go to a thrift store herself and pick out some more suitable things.

She didn't feel completely up to going out, even after all this time, but felt safe with Sam.

"I'll change here, I guess." Sam walked to his bag and got out some more outdoorsy clothes, before going into the bathroom and shutting the door.

Katherine walked over to the door to leave, but stumbled back when she opened it to find a man standing there. While his sudden presence would have startled anyone, not only was she still a little skittish, but something felt very wrong. Her heart started to pound, but she licked her lips nervously and said, "Um, excuse me? I think you have the wrong room..."

The man said nothing. He stepped into the room and Katherine quickly stepped back, but with each step she took away, he took another towards her.

"Sa—" She didn't realize how close to the wall she was until he shoved her against it, putting his hand over her mouth.

"I knew I had to stop. I just smelled something so good." He leaned in to smell her hair and she tried to cringe away, stopped by the wall behind her. "It'll only hurt for a minute, girl, and then I'll be done." He opened his mouth and leaned in, and Katherine didn't need to know what kind of monster he was to know he was about to, for lack of a better term, make her into a meal.

She immediately started to struggle against him, hitting at his chest and screaming against his hand as loudly as she could, anything to get him off and alert Sam. The man didn't even seem to notice her struggles, and she could feel his teeth, and then—

The door to the bathroom was thrown open and Sam stumbled out. "What— Katherine!" He immediately jumped into action, running over to the beds and pulling a duffel bag out from under one.

"I don't appreciate having my meals interrupted." The man pulled away only to glare at Sam, keeping Katherine pinned against the wall. "You'll be next, don't worry..." He turned back to Katherine and continued his pursuit to feast on any flesh he could see.

"Leave her alone!" Sam pulled out the first weapon he could find, a small dagger, and turned to throw it at the man. It hit the wall, burying itself right next to Katherine's head, causing her to scream. "Oh, God! I'm sorry! Just..." He quickly turned to look through the bag again.

"I told you not to chase it towards the motel, Dean!" John's voice came from outside the room, before he and Dean ran inside. "Shit!" He wasted no time before grabbing the man off of Katherine, tossing him to the floor.

"You again! I thought I had lost you...just let me eat!" The man dodged John's fist, quickly scrambling to his feet and shoving Dean aside easily, running out the door.

"After him! Now!" John tossed a weapon to Dean, who went out after the man.

Sam stopped looking through the bag, watching Dean go and then looking at his father. "Is Dean going to be okay?"

"He'll be fine. He can handle this." John moved to Katherine, who was still against the wall, her eyes wide. "Katherine? Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

Katherine did a quick mental check of herself, nodding. She was surprised to find that she wasn't as scared as she thought she might be in a situation like this; maybe the Winchesters were a bigger help than she knew. That didn't mean she wasn't damn scared, but she wasn't whimpering and panicking on the floor like...when John had found her. "Yes, actually...and no, he didn't. Sam distracted him, then you and Dean came in before he could. What was he?"

He didn't answer her. "If me, Sam, or Dean hadn't been here, you would have been in a lot of trouble." He looked at her, nodding. "I think it's time to teach you how to hunt." Neither she nor Sam had a chance to respond to that before his gaze went to the dagger in the wall. "—Sam!"

* * *

 

**January 8th, 1999**

**Elgin, Illinois**

 

* * *

 

"Oh, come on, if I were some monster you would seriously be my bitch right now."

"Shut up, Dean!"

Katherine and the Winchesters had fallen into a comfortable routine. Katherine — and sometimes Sam — researched areas for anything suspicious, Dean and John — and sometimes Sam — would hunt anything that needed hunting, they would all eat, they would all sleep, and John would teach Katherine about monsters, weapons, or fighting in their spare time.

With each day, she grew stronger both physically and mentally. Her personality, the Winchesters found, was usually caring and gentle, albeit quick-witted and still stubborn; and when she needed to be, she could be fiery.

Like now, as John and Sam were off on a hunt this time, and Dean couldn't bear another second of research, so he decided to teach her how to escape various holds. He was relentless in his fighting and his teasing, which frustrated Katherine beyond belief.

"I'm just saying!" He had her pinned face first against a wall in her motel room, holding one of her arms behind her back. "I think my dad's holding back on you. You can't get out of this? You're a monster's bitch. With a collar and everything."

Katherine growled, struggling against him, which only made him twist her arm further behind her back. "Dean! That hurts!"

"The kind of shit that's out there isn't going to care whether they hurt you or not." He paused, then chuckled. "Do you hear that jingle? It's the bell on your little pink collar, complete with 'Kitty Kat' inscribed into the leather—"

She suddenly turned, elbowing him right in the stomach with her free arm — a bit harder than she meant to. He gasped for air and released her, stumbling back, gripping at his stomach as he doubled over in pain.

"There." She turned to face him, stretching out her aching arm.

He looked up at her and said breathlessly, "That wasn't so hard, was it?" He took another deep breath and then straightened up, nodding. "Good. That was good. Why don't we go out and get some drinks from the vending machine?"

"Thank God. Let's get some snacks, too." Katherine walked towards the door. She made it just a couple of feet before she was suddenly tackled right to the floor by Dean. "Hey! Dean! What the hell?"

"Never ever," He grunted as he flipped her onto her back, pinning her to the floor, "let your guard down. Or turn your back. Or trust someone. You made a lot of mistakes there." He grinned and she glared at him half-heartedly, before they both just looked at each other, neither of them moving. "—so, are you going to thank me for teaching you?"

She smirked, then easily flipped them over, pinning Dean beneath her. "You're a stereotypical, horny nineteen-year-old boy."

"Hey, I'm going to be twenty in a couple weeks."

"And I'm going to be sixteen next month, which means that you're actually a stereotypical pervert."

"Come on, it's a four year difference. It's not like it's my dad hitting on you...wait, he hasn't, has he?"

"No! Gross...is that something I should be wary of?"

"Of course not—"

A loud bang suddenly came from the room next door, followed by the sound of John's muffled voice. Katherine and Dean looked at each other and both quickly got to their feet, going out to investigate what was going on. The door to the boys' room was wide open, so they stood in the doorway to watch.

"I thought we were done with this, Sam!" John threw the dagger he had been carrying onto the bed.

Sam stood across the room, his arms crossed and anger evident on his face. "I just don't understand, Dad! Why won't you tell us? What is so terrible that you won't tell us?"

"Fine! You wanna know, Sam?" John yelled, his tone taking on a terrifying quality that both Sam and Dean knew meant he was furious. "That night...that hunt...that was her family. Her family turned into those creatures and they were going after her—"

Sam looked at his father in horror, before his gaze went to the door, where Katherine stood looking ready to cry and Dean stood in shock. "Dad—"

"No, you wanted to hear this! That was her family that we hunted that night. While you and Dean ran off to go get clean, I found her cowering underneath a tree. I know you think I'm a dick, Sam, but do you know what that was like? That little girl was scared because she didn't understand what happened to her family and she had nothing else. So that's why I took her in and that's why she's still here. Are you happy now?"

Dean glanced at Katherine and quickly stepped into the room. "Dad?"

"What?" John snapped, turning and noticing Katherine. "—Katherine. I'm sorry you had to hear that..."

"No. It's okay." Her voice were shaky and tears had gathered in her eyes from the memory of why she was here. She may have been feeling better and settling in with the Winchesters, but that pain was still there. "I'm...glad they know. It was clearly bugging them." She did her best to smile, before quickly walking back to her room.

John sighed heavily and looked at Sam with a shake of his head, walking into the bathroom and slamming the door shut.

Sam ran a hand through his hair, sitting down on the foot of one of the beds. "I shouldn't have pushed him."

"You always push him, Sam." Dean crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.

"It's different this time. It wasn't just us getting at each other...Katherine was finally opening up and being...I don't know. Normal! And now...I messed it all up..."

"She'll be fine. She made it through it once, she'll do it again...that shit always hurts. You know that." Dean looked away as Sam grimaced. "But...she'll be fine. She has us and...God, this is so cheesy. Wanna go get something to eat?"

Sam looked pensive for a moment. "—no. Uh...you pick something up. I'll be right back." He stood up without another word and walked out of the room, leaving Dean in confused.

* * *

 

**May 24th, 1999**

**Clive, Iowa**

 

* * *

 

"Katherine? Katherine? Katherine!"

The call of her name sounded so far away, like someone was shouting it into a tin can from a desert island. Beyond that, she recognized stomping, yelling, banging; all muffled just like her name. A high ringing sound overpowered every other noise and she couldn't help but think about how irritating it was.

"Katherine." Something touched her face, then tugged at her arms. She slowly blinked her eyes open to see a blurry figure crouching down in front of her. She blinked again and again, and as much as she had to before the figure came in focus and she could see Sam's face. "Are you okay?"

Everything came rushing back to her. Hunt. House. Ghost. Throw. She groaned as pain radiated through her body. They had been on a hunt for some sort of ghost, her first legitimate hunt, and things hadn't gone as planned. Unless John, Dean, and Sam secretly planned for the ghost to use its powers to hurl her across the room and right into the wall.

"You know, Sam," she started, still a little delirious, "I don't think John and Dean trained me very well."

Sam nearly rolled his eyes and started to move to help her up, only to stop and look over his shoulder as John called to him. "Coming!" He got up, running across the room.  
Katherine watched for a moment, seeing John hand a few things to Sam while Dean dealt with the ghost. She tried to stand and immediately felt dizzy, falling to her knees in an attempt to keep from actually passing out. "Hey...a little help...here..." She felt a little useless, watching Sam go over to a nearby fireplace that was already lit. She didn't remember that, but assumed one of the boys did it.

Suddenly, Sam was out of her view and there was a thud beside her, as he was thrown into the wall just like her. He also went a tad unconscious, just like her, only able to let out a quiet groan.

"—necklace! The necklace!" John was yelling. "Katherine, get the damn necklace!"

She furrowed her brow in confusion, before looking down and seeing an old, jewel necklace on the floor by Sam. She looked at that, then the fireplace, then the necklace again, then—her eyes caught sight of the ghost. It dropped its attention from John and Dean, who were doing their best to keep it occupied, and started walking towards her. At an alarming speed. She barely had time to think before she grabbed the necklace and started to practically crawl as quickly as she could toward the fireplace.

The most terrifying growl came from the ghost that sent a chill through Katherine despite all of her training, but she didn't have time to stop for her own fear.

Sam started to wake, John and Dean ran after the ghost, and Katherine tossed the necklace right into the fireplace.

The spirit reached out for her threateningly and she closed her eyes tightly, bracing herself for whatever it could do to her. Instead of another trip across the room or anything else physical, there was a horrible scream that echoed through the room, and she opened her eyes just in time to see the ghost disappear from sight.

All was silent except for their breathing, until Sam finally moaned, "Katherine's right. I don't think you trained us very well." It was said in a half-joking tone, though no one laughed as Dean rushed to help him up.

"You okay, Sammy?"

John walked over and pulled Katherine to her feet, giving her a hard slap on the shoulder. It may have been okay for a young man like Dean or an incredibly tall teenager like Sam, but the hit had the sixteen-year-old girl nearly stumbling forward, giving John an offended look.

"You did good, kid," he said, making her offended stare morph into a tentative smile.

Sam assured Dean he was fine and brushed himself off. "Come on, she saved our asses."

"Yeah, right," Dean scoffed, grabbing a bag of their supplies and weapons as they headed to the door. "Who did all the work while Sleeping Beauty took a nap? We're lucky she was awake enough to get rid of the necklace." Despite his words, he slung an arm around Katherine's shoulders and pulled her close. "At least you didn't run away screaming. Not bad for your first actual hunt...I'll even get you a participant ribbon, Kat."

The nickname rolled off his tongue easily, as it had for the past couple of months. It was either because he was too lazy to say her full name or because he felt close enough to give her a nickname, but either way, it stuck.

"Thanks a lot, Dean-o," she bantered back easily, which was the usual interactions between them. Her own nickname for him had started out sarcastic, but sometimes it stuck, too.

* * *

 

**February 20th, 2000**

**Tulsa, Oklahoma**

 

* * *

 

It had been over a year since Katherine met the Winchesters, and there was still no sign of her leaving. Truth be told, despite the circumstances, she didn't want to leave them; truth be told, despite the change of having her around, they didn't want her to leave. John enjoyed the extra help, she and Dean bantered happily, and she and Sam became especially close, given their close ages and, as they discovered, similar thoughts and sensitivities. She had even eased into their lifestyle and moved onto bigger hunts, able to fight alongside the boys with little difference to them.

She wouldn't call them a family. Though protective at times, John was hardly even close to a father figure to her, and Sam and Dean felt more like friends than brothers. None of them knew what to call their group and none of them felt the need to, they all just knew it was pretty good.

Usually.

"Happy birthday to you...happy birthday to you...happy birthday, dear Kat...happy birthday to you..." Sam sang tiredly, a little off key, but Katherine didn't mind.

To be perfectly honest, she was pretty drugged up.

It may have been her birthday, but they had to go out on a hunt that night anyway. John had been so sure this time that it was that Yellow-Eyed Demon he sought after so valiantly, so there was no passing it up.

It wasn't. They weren't really sure what it was, just that it was aggressive, strong, fast, and had an amazing handling of knives. Which Katherine found out the hard way when she went to attack it and it took the knife from her without even a struggle.

So now they were in the boys' motel room. Katherine was laying back on the bed, her arm covered with drying blood as Dean stitched up the deep gash in it, John sat at the table and stitched up his own slash from the beast, and Sam stood by with some snack cake that had a singular candle in it.

"Thanks, Sammy," Katherine practically slurred, reaching up to touch his face with her good arm. She missed, which might have something to do with the fact that Sam was standing on the opposite side of the bed. She couldn't really tell; she didn't know what John gave her to help with the pain, but it really did help.

"Hey, I call him Sammy." Dean finished stitching up her wound, moving to cut the thread. "Eat your damn cake...and, uh, whatever Sam got you...I totally helped pick that out." That earned him a look from his little brother.

Katherine looked up at Sam, her eyes shining with pure excitement despite how out of it she obviously was. "Is there a present?"

"Yeah, uh," he nearly laughed, having never seen her so excited before. "I'll get it, but you gotta blow out the candle first..." She immediately did as he asked, so he set the cake and extinguished candle down, moving to grab something out of his bag. "I know how you like Harry Potter so...here..." He handed her a thick book and glanced at Dean. He wouldn't dare admit in front of him that he liked Harry Potter, too.

For a long moment, Katherine just stared at the book. The only sound in the room was the rustling of John and Dean putting medical supplies away. Then there was a sob.

All three men in the room froze when she began to cry. Dean didn't really know what the hell to do and John may have been well-versed in dealing with a crying woman once upon time. He wasn't anymore.

Surprisingly, Sam recovered quickly and sat on the bed, gently rubbing her back. "Hey...it's...I...you don't have to take the book..."

"It's not that," she sobbed again. "I...don't know what would have happened if I didn't have you guys. I had...I had nothing. I was so afraid. But you took me in even though you don't even do that stuff and...what would I do without you?" She whimpered and sniffed, and no one could say a thing before she asked, "Please, can I have a room without an elephant in it?"

"—oookay, Kit Kat," Dean drawled. That was a rare nickname, one he usually used when he was humoring her. "Your room's next door." He picked her up out of fear of the trouble she could get in by walking to her room.

"Are there elephants?"

"No. No elephants...well, I mean, I haven't been in there, so maybe—" He stopped at her frightened whimper, clearing his throat to keep from laughing. "I'll check, okay? I'll scare them off if there are any."

* * *

 

**August 8th, 2002**

**Norfolk, Nebraska**

 

* * *

 

"Sam, get your ass back here!"

Four years. Hunting monsters. Fighting monsters and sometimes each other. Nursing wounds. Eating way too much fast food. Lying to get ahead or to get information. Those were only a few things Katherine's life consisted of now.

Almost four years.

And it certainly wasn't the first time she woke up in the middle of the night to yelling.

But it was the first time that yell scared the hell out of her for a reason other than being told that there was some monster or creature nearby. It was John, his voice filled with such fury that even the darkest being would shudder.

Part of her said not to get up out of fear, but the rest of her shot out of bed in an instant and hurriedly threw on some acceptable clothes to wear outside. She raced out of her bedroom—all of the motels in town were booked up, so they were forced to stay at a little bed and breakfast for a change—and outside to find a scene she didn't really expect.

Sam was halfway to the road, his bag of belongings over one shoulder, though he wasn't walking away. He stood facing John, despite the fury in the older man's eyes. Dean stood back with a forced look of stoicism, at least a dozen different emotions stirring just beneath his fake expression that couldn't even be missed in the dark.

"—what's going on?" Katherine asked after a moment, walking over to them.

John didn't seem to notice her presence until she came into his vision. "Sam's leaving us." He didn't even look at her. He kept his harsh glare on Sam.

"I'm not— God, Dad, if you would just—" Sam stopped short in frustration, looking over at Katherine. "I'm going to Stanford. I got accepted..."

She didn't know what to think. Oh, they had talked about this...in moments alone, when one of them couldn't sleep, they would talk. Sometimes Sam would bring up his dream of going to college and being normal, but she had thought it was just that; a dream. She didn't know whether to be thrilled for him for getting what he wanted, or to feel hurt at his departure. For herself. For Dean. Even for John, whose pain must have been somewhere beneath his anger.

"Sam, that's...that's..."

"Horrible. He's abandoning his family," John spat out quickly. "So you hate this life, huh, Sam? You hate this life that we live to avenge your mother—"

"Mom wouldn't have wanted this! She wouldn't want her family forsaking their futures and risking their lives just to catch one demon!"

"You don't know what the hell your mother would have wanted! You didn't even know her."

Pain was immediately evident on Sam's face. "If you hate me so much—"

"I hate you? I'm not the one who picks all these fights, Sam! I'm not—"

"I'm leaving, Dad," Sam cut in, jaw clenched. "You can yell at me all you want, but I'm not missing out on the chance to get out of this life."

John shook is head. "You leave, don't you even think of coming back. You understand me?"

"—Dad, wait—" Dean, ever the mediator of John and Sam's fights, tried to step in to smooth out the situation. He went ignored as Sam looked into their father's eyes and said,

"Fine." They stared at each other for a long moment. Sam's gaze eventually went to Katherine and he slowly moved to her, dropping his bag on the ground as he did. "Kat...Katherine. I want you to come with me."

That had her taken aback. "Sam, I—" She started out sounding shocked, but quickly shook her head and addressed him calmly. Emotions were high enough as it is. "Sam, there's no place for me at Stanford."

"You can stay with me! I'll get an apartment...Katherine..." He took her hand. "You don't deserve this life. You didn't deserve all that happened to you...my dad forced you into this because he wanted extra recruits." Forced? That was a strong word. Wasn't it? Her learning to hunt had been necessary. "You didn't ask for this...you should have a normal life. You should get to move on from the past. Just come with me..."

It was tempting. Yes, she was thankful to the Winchesters for taking her in after such a tragedy when she was practically a kid, and yes, hunting could be exhilirating. The adrenaline, the strength she felt when she took something down, saving people...but it was tiring, too. It was painful, and stressful, and still a little terrifying no matter how many monsters she faced.

She could see just off to the side of Sam, maybe a couple yards behind him, were John and Dean. John had started to storm inside after Sam's decision, and stopped short when he made his offer to Katherine, to see if she would leave them, too. Dean stared at them, his emotions terribly evident, bubbling just beneath the surface. Katherine was surprised he was holding it together. It was clear the his little brother was the most important thing in the world to him and now he was leaving.

She looked at Sam. "—I'm sorry." God, was she sorry, especially when Sam's face crumpled in disappointment. "I can't," she said softly, pulling her hand from his.

How could she? God knew she wasn't as important to Dean or even John as Sam was, but she couldn't abandon them. John had saved her. Dean had accepted her, and Sam had, too, but Sam was moving onto greater things. The only thing she would have with him was a couch or a bedroom in an apartment. At least with John and Dean, she could keep helping the world a little, even if it was scary. She could help them by not having two people walk out on them in one night.

"There's nothing for me there, Sam. I can't just...live in an apartment. That's no reason to go somewhere."

He nodded, and to her surprise, pulled her into a hug. That made her even more sorry, realizing just how damn much she was going to miss him. He was an important piece to this strange puzzle that made it all complete. He was who she had grown closest to the last four years, who she connected to, who she could sit with for hours talking about nearly anything.

But he was getting out of this fucked up life, like he wanted. She was happy for him. Happy and pained, and both feelings had her hugging him back tightly.

"I understand," he said, pulling away. "Take care of Dean, alright?" It was almost funny that the one Dean took care of said such a thing. Almost. It wasn't. "I got a bus to catch." He grabbed his bag off the ground and glanced at all three of them, before walking to the road.

"Sammy, don't do this." It was the second time Dean spoke, his voice subtly laced with pain.

Sam paused. Dean was as important to him as he was to Dean and the pain of that conversation would have been too much, so he kept walking.

John stalked back into the bed and breakfast, slamming the door as he went.

Dean stared at the road, waiting for Sam to just turn around and come back and say it was a joke.

Katherine waited for Dean.

And waited.

And waited.

He stared at the dark road so long that she thought the sun would come up before he finally stopped looking.

Eventually, he did stop. He turned around, defeat and pain radiating off him so it could almost be seen, and he stared at Katherine. She held her hand out. He didn't take it. They walked inside, however, and he followed her to her room instead of going to his own. Neither of them slept that night.

Their relationship, which had been all bantering and helping when it was needed, changed because of Sam's departure. Not a bad change, necessarily, but a damn drastic one. Similar to before on the outside, with new layers deep down.

John changed, too. Drastically. Painfully. Adamant and wild in his hunting, going on more solo trips than ever before, closing himself off a bit more each day.

And none of them would see Sam for a long time.


	2. Pilot: Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we start with season one! Hopefully this all goes well lol. This is mostly from Katherine's "POV", as in most things will involve her. Aside from important things she has no place in! It's not a set POV, as I'm sure we'll delve into others' thoughts and feelings. But not every detail in every episode will be there (like the Halloween party in the pilot), as it's not very important and I'm not here to write out an entire script. I hope no one minds. Enjoy! :)
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC, Katherine.

* * *

 

**Stanford University, California**

 

* * *

  
Two small hands carefully pushed open the window to the apartment, before a feminine figure slipped through gracefully, followed by a masculine figure who was more graceful than expected after so many years of training.

"—you're on my foot, Dean."

"Your foot's under mine, Kat."

Despite his response, Dean quickly moved and gently bumped his shoulder against Kat's as an apology. "We gotta find Sam. You go this way, I'll go that way." He gestured to one side of the apartment for her and the other side for him.

"It's the middle of the night," she whispered, "the bedroom would be a good place to start."

"Do you see the bedroom? This place is like a damn maze."

They went their separate ways. Kat walked quietly through the apartment, finding herself in what looked to be a living room in the dark, looking around in what she knew was a futile attempt to find Sam. It wasn't long at all before she heard grunting and struggling, and looked over to see a man get shoved into the room. He almost knocked into her, but she managed to stumble back and fall onto a couch, going unnoticed.

Dean came in, elbowing the guy in the face as he did.

She would have helped, but they were in Sam's apartment, and it wasn't easy to mistake the gargantuan height of the first man, even in the dark. So she sat back and watched, somehow a little nostalgic. Dean was getting in every move while most of Sam's attempts at hitting or kicking were blocked, until Dean finally knocked him down and pinned him to the floor, a hand loosely around his brother's throat.

"Whoa, easy, tiger."

There was some harsh panting, then Sam's confused and surprised voice, "—Dean?" The only response he got was a laugh. "You scared the crap out of me!"

"That's 'cause you're out of practice." That jab seemed to strike a nerve with Sam, and he immediately grabbed Dean's arm, yanking him down and kicking him in the back to stun him, pinning him down in return. "Or not. Get off of me."

Sam moved to his feet, reaching down to help Dean up. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Well, we were looking for a beer." Dean grinned, grabbing Sam's shoulders and giving him a playful shake.

That earned him a confused look. "We?"

"Hey, Sam," Kat finally spoke, standing up from the couch and moving to them. Being up close, being able to decipher most of his face, had her remembering how much she missed him.

"Katherine...you're still..." Hunting. Hanging around Dean. In one piece. It could have been a number of things, but he chose not to end the sentence, instead just looking at her with shock, confusion, and perhaps a hint of happiness. There was no hug this time, though. It had been three years since he left, and around two since she or Dean contacted him. Two years seemed just as bad as three in the long run.

"Yeah, I'm still."

"Sam?" A female voice called out, before the lights turned on and in came a pretty blonde, dressed in a Smurf shirt and boy shorts that were obviously her pajamas. Dean immediately took a shining to her, looking her over.

"Jess." Sam looked over. "Hey." He then looked at Dean, perhaps with a bit of contempt when he noticed the way he was looking at Jess. "Dean, this is my girlfriend, Jessica."

"Wait." Jess started to smile, moving further into the room. "Your brother Dean?"

"I love the Smurfs..." Even an idiot would be able to tell he wasn't talking about the characters so much as where the characters sat on the girl's chest. He walked over to her, grinning. "You know, I gotta tell you...you...are completely outta my brother's league."

Kat interrupted with a clear of her throat, waving. "And I'm Kat." It wasn't like she wasn't used to Dean's womanizing, but seeing him mack on Sam's girlfriend was verging on creepy.

"Kat?" Jess looked past Dean, her brow furrowing in confusion. "Sam, who is this?"

"—who am I?" Kat looked at Sam, smiling tightly and blinking in — perhaps slightly offended — shock. "Haven't you mentioned me, Sam?" The awkward look from him told her plenty. "Did you get that, Dean? Sam hasn't mentioned me." Sure, there was no reason to mention her, really. Dean was his brother. Kat was the girl whose entire existence in their lives was woven with supernatural details. But it was still a little painful to know.

"She's...an old friend of ours." Sam's explanation was vague enough to make it obvious that Jess knew little or nothing about the more paranormal side of his life.

Dean was too busy staring at those Smurfs to pay any mind to much else, seeming to make Jess a little uncomfortable. "Just let me put something on—" She turned to leave.

"No, no, no, I wouldn't dream of it." He'd likely be dreaming off the opposite. "Seriously." He nodded, as if she couldn't figure out already that he was attracted to her. She rolled her eyes and he walked back over to Sam and Kat. "Anyway, we gotta borrow your boyfriend here and talk about some private, family business. But , uh, nice meetin' you."

"No," Sam said almost defensively, moving to Jess and wrapping an arm around her, "no. Whatever you wanna say, you can say it in front of her."

"Okay." Dean pursed his lips, thinking for a second, before standing straight. "Um. Dad hasn't been home in a few days."

"So he's working overtime on a Miller Time shift." The younger Winchester shrugged it off easily, with a veil of mocking and bitterness in his tone. "He'll stumble back in sooner or later."

Dean and Kat shared a look, before looking back at Sam. "Dad's on a hunting trip, and he hasn't been home in a few days." That got through to him, and there was a long beat of silence.

"—Jess. Excuse us."

Jess looked confused, but realized that it was serious, and nodded, retreating back to the bedroom.

"—I can't believe you haven't mentioned me to her."

"Let it go, Kat. Bigger issues." Dean put his hands on her shoulders, pushing her out of the room and towards the door while Sam went to the coat rack to grab a hoodie. "You can whack Sam's balls off later," he chuckled, knowing full well she wasn't going to unleash some storm of fury on Sam, but finding the thought amusing.

The three made their way out of the apartment in a moment of silence, and it wasn't until the door was shut, sure Jess couldn't hear them, that Sam started to speak, "Was this really the way to go about this, you guys?"

"We need your help, Sam," Dean said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, we. You have Katherine to help you...you don't need me."

"I'm not John's son—" Kat paused. "—but wouldn't that be the plot twist of the century?" She smiled slightly at Sam's annoyed look, having seen it so many times. Usually directed at John, sometimes at Dean, and sometimes at her when she thought she was being funny. She turned to walk down the stairs with Dean, and Sam followed with a sigh.

"I mean, come on, you can't just break in in the middle of the night and expect me to hit the road with you."

"You're not hearing us, Sammy. Dad's missing. We need you to help us find him."

Unfortunately, Sam could be stubborn when he wanted to be. "Remember the poltergeist? Amherst? Or the Devil's Gate in Clifton? He was missing then, too. He's always missing and he's always fine." His face was stony as he and Dean stopped at the bottom of the stairs; Kat didn't exactly want to be in the middle of whatever might transpire, so she walked an extra few feet away.

"Not for this long." Dean was more of an optimist than anyone knew as he asked, "Now, are you gonna come with us or not?"

Sam looked at Kat, then at Dean. "I'm not."

"Why not?" Somehow Dean was perplexed by this, despite how obvious Sam's dislike of hunting was.

"I swore I was done hunting. For good."

"Come on." He rolled his eyes. "It wasn't easy, but it wasn't that bad." He turned to keep walking, moving to the gated entrance of the apartment building as Sam and Kat followed.

"Yeah?" Sam scoffed. "When I told Dad I was scared of the thing in my closet, he gave me a .45!"

"Well, what was he supposed to do?"

"I was nine-years-old. He was supposed to say..." For a split second, Sam seemed to be searching for the usual lies parents told their children to calm them. "Don't be afraid of the dark."

"The dark's not all that safe, Sam," Kat said softly. "I think we all know that firsthand."

"Yeah, I know, but the way we grew up after Mom was killed...the way you had to live after what happened to your family...Dad's obsession to find the thing that killed Mom, and we still haven't found the damn thing." Sam's voice was raising and Dean looked away uncomfortably. "So we kill everything we can find!"

"Save a lot of people doing it, too."

Kat nodded in agreement with Dean. Hunting was hell and she couldn't really blame Sam for shying away even with such dire circumstances, but saving people made it...worth it. It was one of the reasons she hadn't gone with him and it was one of the reasons she was still in the game. Among a few others.

Sam nearly laughed. "You think Mom would have wanted this for us?" The night he left flashed through Dean and Kat's minds, the way he and John fought; his shouted words about his mother so similar to the ones he said now.

Instead of answering, Dean just slammed the gate open and walked up a set of cement stairs; Sam kept going, catching up to his brother to keep his attention. "The weapon training...the melting the silver into bullets? Man, Dean, we were raised like warriors. If that wasn't bad enough, Dad had to drag Katherine into it, too! He couldn't just save her and let her go, it had to be selfish. He had to gain another hunter, because he was so damn obsessed."

"Hey." Kat wasn't exactly defending John with her interruption, but rather the fact that she was brought into that life. It was hard, yes, but God knew where she would have been without those boys. They walked over to the Impala that waited for them; it had been around as long as she had, and probably longer. She had never been a 'car person', so she never asked a thing about it.

"So what are you gonna do? You're just gonna live some normal, apple pie life?" Dean threw his arms out, moving around to the trunk of the car. "Is that it?"

"No, not normal." Sam shook his head, eyes flickering to Kat for a split second and then back to his brother. "Safe."

"And that's why you ran away." There was a pause and Dean scoffed, looking away.

"I was just going to college." Even if he had been, there was little chance he was going to ever return to the hunting life. He had offered Kat that normal, safe life all those years ago. "It was Dad who said that if I was gonna go, I should stay gone. And that's what I'm doing."

"Yeah, well, Dad's in real trouble," Dean was doing his best not to snap. "If he's not dead already, I can feel it."

Kat leaned against the car, casting a sympathetic glance at Dean. "He really is in trouble, Sam. We haven't heard from him and we've tried contacting him. We can't do this alone."

"Yes, you can."

"Yeah, well, I— we don't want to." Dean's slip didn't go unheard. They both missed Sam, but the man who practically raised him and loved him with everything he had took the cake. It had been clear since the day he left how much he wanted to have Sam back, even if he didn't say it.

Sam looked between the two, seeming to struggle for a second, before finally sighing and rolling his eyes. "What was he hunting?"

With a nod, Dean turned and gave Kat a light swat on the thigh. Neither of them noticed the weird look from Sam, Kat too busy moving off the car and walking past Dean with a half-hearted glare, and Dean opening the trunk. He lifted the floor of the trunk, where weapons, supplies, and documents were neatly kept, and propped it up with a shotgun.

"Alright...let's see, where the hell did I put that thing?" He began searching through.

"Brown folder, by the holy water." The look Kat got from Dean said something along the lines of him being able to find it himself. "I pay attention, you just stick things places." She realized her poor choice of words, but thankfully Dean just grabbed the aformentioned folder instead of making a comment.

"So, when Dad left, why didn't you go with him?" Sam leaned over to look in the trunk, watching Dean.

"We were working our own gig. Uh, voodoo thing down in New Orleans."

Sam smirked. "Dad let you go on a hunting trip by yourself?"

"I'm twenty-six, dude." Dean gave him an offended look.

Kat raised an eyebrow when Sam gave her an expectant look. "I'm three months older than you. I think we can both handle ourselves, don't you?"

"Ah, here we go." Dean pulled out the documents he'd been looking for, straightening up to read it. "So, Dad was checking out this two-lane blacktop just outside of Jericho, California. About a month ago," he handed a paper to Sam. "this guy. They found his car, but he had vanished. Completely MIA." He drawled, as Sam looked over the article.

"So maybe he was kidnapped." Sam's skepticism was odd considering what he knew.

"Yeah, well." Dean started to sift through the papers. "Here's another one in April, another one in December '04, '03, '98, '92...ten of 'em over the past twenty years." He yanked the first paper back from his brother. "All men, all same five-mile stretch of road."

"And you can thank yours truly for digging the case up." And for probably causing John to disappear, but that was another issue that Kat wasn't going to worry about.

"Started happening more and more. Dad went to go dig around. That was three weeks go. We haven't heard from him since, which is bad enough." He reached into the trunk, pulling out a recorder. "Then I get this voicemail yesterday." He pressed play.

"Dean." John's voice and a lot of crackling came from the recorder. "Something big is starting to happen...I need to try and figure out what's going on. It may...be very careful, Dean. We're all in danger."

Sam met Dean's eyes when he pressed stop. "You know there's EVP on that?"

"Not bad, Sammy." Dean grinned. "Kinda like riding a bike, isn't it?" Then he looked back at Kat. "Why couldn't you figure that out? Points for me and Sammy."

"I don't know. I didn't go to EVP school," she said lamely. She knew Dean's comment was in jest, but she was almost upset that both he and Sam had figured it out. After Sam left, John would make comments about how she was the smart one...which seemed to have gotten to her head. At least she knew about the EVP before Sam did...if only because Dean had pointed it out to her before.

Dean chuckled and started to rewind the message. "Alright, I slowed the message down, I ran it through a gold wave, took out the hiss, and this is what I got." He pressed play, this time a woman's voice could be heard instead of John's.

"I can never...go...home..." He pressed stop.

Sam blinked in confusion and repeated softly, "Never go home..."

Dean laid the gun back down, dropping the false floor before slamming the trunk shut and turning to lean against it. "You know, in almost two years, I've never bothered you. Never asked for a thing." That was a guilt trip.

"—" There was a sigh, and Sam looked down. "Alright. I'll go." He nodded. "I'll help you find him. But I have to get back first thing Monday. Just wait here..." He started to go back to the apartment, but was stopped by Dean,

"What's first thing Monday?"

He paused. "I have an interview."

"What, a job interview? Skip it." Dean shrugged it off easily.

"It's a law school interview." Sam looked almost amused, like Dean's lack of care for things he didn't understand was funny. "And it's my whole future, on a plate."

"Law school?" Dean smirked, like Sam's goals were amusing. They both had skewed senses of humor, it seemed.

"So we got a deal or not?"

He stayed silent, so Sam walked back down the stairs and into the apartment building.

Kat watched him go, then walked over to sit up against the trunk of the Impala with Dean, crossing her arms. "He's really making something out of himself." She couldn't say that she wasn't impressed. Sam made it out of the life he hated and was really living the life that he wanted to live.

Maybe it made her a little sad. He would never be coming back to them and she would never be going to him; it almost scared her that her that she was mostly okay and mostly proud. She missed him, that was true, but time makes things fade. The close bond they once shared seemed more far and less close. Those deep conversations, spilled feelings, shared interests, and late night talks seemed like a thousand years ago rather than just a few.

And yet, she remembered the day their bond was forged so clearly, considering it seemed to be at least a thousand and one years ago. It was the day the boys found out about what had happened to her. She went to her motel room and wept rather pitifully over the reopened memories of what her family had become. What the Winchesters had to do. It was only a moment or two before there was a knock, then the opening of a door, then Sam's shame-filled presence. He had come to apologize and, God, no one in history could have ever meant an apology more than that puppy-eyed kid. He was so earnest and sorrowful, that she couldn't even send him away to save her the embarrassment of her tears being seen; and he did stay. Though his lack of experience with crying girls was noticeable, he soon came over to the bed and sat with her, and put his hand on her shoulder. That one touch had every fact and feeling spilling from her before she could stop it. He just listened.

Kat hadn't had a bad childhood — the sudden thrust into hunting was debatable, but before that, all was well — and she was surrounded by love and support, but no one had ever listened to her like Sam did. He took in every word with sympathetic eyes and kept any embarrassment she may have felt from her tears and confessions at bay. They connected, and that's what their relationship became. Hopes, dreams, fears, hurts—they said it all to each other, feeling safe and trusting. Where Kat had no one and Sam had the non-ideal Dean or John, they suddenly found each other, knowing they could say anything without laughter, or judgment, or the fear of someone else being told. They were the closest friends either of them had ever had.

But it had been too long. Instead of wanting him to come back, to cry with him, she wanted him to help them find John and then go live his life. He had changed. In some ways, Kat changed, too.

"—seriously, Kat?"

She broke out of her thoughts, blinking at Dean. "What?"

"I've been talking to you for, like, two minutes. You're just staring off into space."

"—sorry." She turned her full attention to him. "What's up?"

"Forget it. We've had Sam back for a hot minute. You already desertin' me?" He gave a little pout, turning what was likely a valid fear of his into something not-so-serious.

"Never." She meant it. The holes that Sam had left were filled by the two of them, perhaps a bit more than he had ever filled them in the first place. For her, at least. "You know, I'm surprised Sam agreed to come."

"Eh, I'm just very persuasive."

"Or, deep down, Sam cares about your dad despite their rocky relationship."

He snorted. "Okay, Oprah."

"That was definitely more Dr. Phil than Oprah." She leaned her head on his shoulder and felt it move a bit as he sighed at her. "I guess we should just be happy that he agreed."

"Yeah. It's not like he's gonna stay, though." There was hope buried somewhere deep in Dean's tone of voice. "Back by Monday."

There was the creak and slam of a gate, before Sam came jogging up the stairs and over to the car, a bag over his shoulder. "Hey. What are you guys doing? Let's get this over with." He seemed to lack a certain enthusiasm.

Dean rolled his eyes and stood up, walking over to get in the driver's side. When Kat moved around the car to open the passenger side door, her hand landed on Sam's instead of the cool metal of the door handle. "This has kinda become my seat since your dad disappeared, Sam."

"Kat." Dean met her eyes over the roof of the car. "Let's not hurt Sam's ego."

She relented, moving her hand and opening a back door instead, getting in. Before John, that spot had been Dean's, so it wasn't like she'd gotten the front seat long enough to be attached to it; and she understood that Dean most likely wanted to sit by his brother.

"Shut up, Dean." Sam glared, opening the door and getting into the seat. "You've always been the one with an ego."

"Yeah, right, college boy."

Kat sat back, shaking her head and smirking. At least there was one person in their group who didn't have a big ego. She was the most sane of the three. Definitely nothing egotistical about thinking that...right?

* * *

 

**Jericho, California**

 

* * *

 

A man drove down Centennial Highway, his cell phone pressed to his ear as music played on the radio. "Amy, I can't come over tonight. Because I've got work in the morning, that's why..." He grinned, laughing. "Yeah, okay, I miss it and my dad's gonna have my ass."

There was a high pitched noise that began coming from the radio, and the man, Troy, noticed a woman dancing on the side of the road, making him furrow his brow. "Amy, let me call you back?" He hung up, pulling over to where the woman stood, leaning over to speak out the window. "Car trouble or somethin'?"

The woman wore a tattered, white dress or nightgown and had no shoes. She just stared for a long moment before saying simply, "Take me home."

"Sure, get in." He reached over to open the passenger side door to let her in, which she accepted, leaning back in the seat like she was exhausted. "—so, you comin' from a Halloween party or somethin'?" He received no answer, and couldn't help but look down at the cleavage shown in the deep neckline of her dress, licking his lips before quickly looking away. "You know, um, a girl like you really shouldn't be alone out here."

She slowly looked at him, almost sadly, while her hand pulled her dress up to show her leg. "I'm with you." Troy looked away nervously, but she grabbed his chin and turned him back. "Will you come home with me?"

"—um." He laughed. "Hell yeah!" He immediately pulled off the side of the road with a squeal of his brakes, continuing down the highway as she directed him where to go. They soon pulled up to an abandoned-looking house and he parked the car. "Come on, you don't live here."

The woman leaned forward and looked at the house, tears falling down her cheeks. "I can never go home."

"What?" Troy leaned forward, too, to look at the house. "What are you talking about? Nobody even lives here. Where do you live?" He looked over at her, only to find that the seat was suddenly empty. He checked the rest of the car and found no sign of her, opening the door to get out and chuckling at what he thought was a joke. "That was good. Joke's over, okay?" He shut the car door, taking a few steps forward. "You want me to leave?" There was no answer. He looked around again, before starting up to the broken down porch and to the door, looking through the torn screen. "Hello?"

A bird suddenly flew right out and into his face, making him scream and fall back. He immediately scrambled to his feet, running to the car without a care for this woman anymore, getting in and rushing back out to the highway. He took a glance back, breathing deeply to calm himself down, then looked in the rearview mirror. The woman was there, staring right at him through the reflection.

He screamed again and drove straight through a sign on a closed bridge, suddenly coming to a stop right in the middle. He screamed once more and the car shook with his struggles as the woman attacked him.

Blood splattered against every window.

 

* * *

 

Kat's fingers twitched. Her brow furrowed. She groaned. She shifted a bit and felt the cool leather of the Impala's backseat against her cheek; she must have fallen asleep at some point the night before. It wasn't exactly surprising, given the fact that she had been up in the middle of the night to break into Sam's apartment. She hadn't exactly gotten any sleep before that, with planning what to do and then Dean's favorite music blasting the entire ride there.

She sat up and yawned, stretching shamelessly before she noticed Sam in the front seat, smirking slightly at her. She peeked over to see him looking through Dean's box of tapes while his legs hung out the open car door.

"Morning," he said, then returned his attention to the tapes.

"Morning." She ran a hand through her hair and leaned forward, resting her arms on the back of the front seat, and her chin on her arms. "Hey, Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"Why didn't you tell your girlfriend about me?"

He paused, a Metallica tape in his hand. "—uh...I dunno...I..." He looked down with a sigh. "It never came up. What was I supposed to tell her? 'Oh, by the way, I used to have this friend whose family we had to take care of because they turned into horrible monsters. She also had to live with us'."

He was right. As she had suspected, there was no real reason to mention her to Jess. She wasn't family. She wasn't an ex or something like that, so there was really no important reason for Jess to know about her. It didn't help nor hinder their relationship, so what was the point, really? No one mentions old friends to their mates.

He had brought up her family, but she gave no outward reaction. In fact, she didn't really give an inward reaction, either. That pain was there, forever, a little farther back. A little duller. So much duller it made her feel guilty sometimes.

"I get it," was all she said. She watched him as he went back to looking through the tapes. His face had matured, she noticed, if only just a little. His hair was kept shaggy like it had always been. So how did he look so different? Did time apart do that much?

She sighed and turned to look out the rolled down window to her right. They were at some rickey, old gas station, which Dean soon exited with hands full of junk food; he even had a pack of candy in his mouth, which he took out to speak,

"Hey! You want breakfast?"

Sam leaned out to glance at the food, making a face. "No, thanks."

"Yes," Kat quickly said out the window, her stomach grumbling at just the thought of food.

"About damn time you woke up." Dean set the the food on the trunk of the car, taking the gas nozzle out of the car's tank.

"So, how'd you pay for that stuff?" Sam asked, looking at another tape. "You guys still running credit card scams?"

"Yeah, well, hunting ain't exactly a pro ball career." He put the nozzle back on the pump. "Besides, all we do is apply. It's not our fault they send us the cards."

"Yeah?" Sam laughed. "And what names did you write on the application this time?" He moved back to sit fully in the car, shutting the door.

"Uh...Bert Aframian." Dean got into the car, smirking as he set down a bottle of soda and a bag of chips. "And his son Hector. Scored two cards out of the deal."

"Sounds about right." He laughed again, looking back at Kat. "What about you? Couldn't add a daughter on the application for a third card?"

"I prefer to get my money in more honest ways."

"Yeah, challenging drunk guys to a game of pool is real honest, Kit Kat."

"Dean!"

Sam chuckled yet again, looking at her with a bit of surprise. "You can play pool?"

"She can't play for shit. She just finds the drunkest guy and bets him fifty bucks." Dean grinned as Kat glared. "We're all a little dirty, you can admit it." He reached over the seat to hand her a soda and a bag of chips.

"Soda for breakfast? Ugh." She set aside the soda, but happily opened the chips, sitting back in her seat.

"You know, I was gonna say you guys haven't changed—" If only Sam knew just how wrong he was... "—but I never really thought I'd see you swindling people, Katherine."

"Kat."

"—what?"

"It's just Kat. Only your dad really calls me Katherine now..." She smiled softly. "I adapt." Or change. That pesky little word that seemed to keep popping up was an appropriate verb.

Sam nodded, turning back to the box of tapes in his lap. "—I swear, man. You gotta update your cassette tape collection."

"Why?" Dean looked at him like he was stupid.

"Well, for one, they're cassette tapes. And two," he pulled out a tape, "Black Sabbath?" then another, "Motorhead?" then another, "Metallica?" The last one was yanked away from him by Dean, who opened the case. "It's the greatest hits of mullet rock."

"Well, house rules, Sammy. Driver picks the music," he put the tape into the player. "shotgun shuts his cakehole." He tossed the case back into the box, giving his brother a look.

"You know, I'm gonna have to agree with Sam—"

"House rules apply to the backseat, too." He just gave Kat's glare a little smirk through the rearview mirror, before starting the car. Music immediately started blasting from the stereo.

"You know, Sammy is a chubby twelve-year-old. It's Sam, okay?" So Kat wasn't the only one with a name change, though Sam's wasn't going to be respected.

"Sorry, I can't hear you, the music's too loud." Dean grinned, pulling out of the gas station and onto the road.

 

* * *

 

They had been on the highway for God knows how long before they passed a sign for the town of Jericho. Sam had been making phone calls on his cell and finally hung up, snapping the phone shut. "Alright. So, there's no one matching Dad at the hospital or morgue, so that's something, I guess."

Dean stayed silent, before looking ahead as they came to police cars parked by a bridge. "Check it out."

"Check what out?" Kat leaned forward, peering out the windshield. "Well, I think we might have a clue."

"Okay, Scooby." Dean pulled the car over and turned off the engine, leaning over to open the glove compartment and pull out a box, looking through it. She didn't think it was worth the trouble or time it would take to insist that Scooby Doo wouldn't talk like that and, if anything, it was more like Fred. "Here. Just in case." He handed her an ID, before taking out a badge, smirking at Sam. "Let's go." He shoved the door open and got out.

Sam and Kat soon followed, the three of them crossing the street to the crime scene.

"You guys find anything?" A deputy stood at the side of the bridge, shouting down to a couple of men who had been searching through the water below. The answer was no and he sighed, turning away. He walked over to a car that had been abandoned in the middle of the bridge, leaning down to look through the car to another deputy that was on the other side.

"No sign of struggle. No footprints...no fingerprints...spotless. It's almost too clean."

Sam, Dean, and Kat walked onto the bridge, surveying the situation. It was just the car, really, nothing else. It may have been just a case of someone jumping off the bridge, but wouldn't those men down in the water have found a body? It was something more. It always was.

"So, this kid Troy," the first man, Deputy Jaffe, started, "he's dating your daughter, isn't he?"

"Yeah."

"How's Amy doing?"

"Puttin' up missing posters downtown."

"You fellas had another one like this just last month, didn't you?" Dean said casually, catching the deputies' attention.

"—who are you?"

"Federal marshals." He flashed his badge at the deputy, lying easily. Kat and Sam stood back while Jaffe looked them over suspiciously.

"You three are a little young for marshals, aren't ya?"

Kat almost couldn't blame the guy for being skeptical. They looked like a few teenagers trying to fit in, though Dean's acting helped to cover that.

He laughed. "Thanks, that's awfully kind of you." He walked closer to the car. "You did have another one just like this, correct?"

"That's right." The deputy looked at Dean, then at Sam, and then at Kat. "About a mile up the road. There've been others before that."

"So this victim..." Sam turned to face the man. "You knew him?"

He nodded. "Town like this, everybody knows everybody."

Dean circled around the car, his hands clasped behind his back. "Any connections between the victims, besides that they're all men?" He stopped on the other side of the car, where Kat walked over to join him, moving around him to peer into the front of the car. It looked like nothing more than a recently abandoned vehicle.

"No. Not so far as we can tell."

"So what's the theory?" Sam made his way around the car, too.

"Honestly? We don't know. Serial murdering? Kidnapping ring?"

"Well, that is exactly the kind of crack police work I'd expect out of you guys," Dean said. Sam smiled tightly and stomped on his left foot, just as Kat gave a friendly smile and elbowed his right side. He flinched, but said nothing, as the deputy eyed them in confusion.

"Thanks for your time." Sam was the first to start walking off, looking around. "Gentlemen."

The deputy still looked at the three of them like they were insane as they walked off of the bridge, Sam in the lead, Kat in the back, and Dean in the middle. Dean looked back to make sure no one was looking, before he smacked Sam hard on the back of his head.

"Ow!" Sam glared at him. "What was that for?"

"Why you gotta step on my foot?"

He wasn't afraid to get in his brother's face. "Why do you have to talk to police like that?"

"Come on," Dean swept in front of him, stopping him and Kat in their tracks. "They don't really know what's going on. We're all alone in this. I mean, if we're gonna find Dad, we've gotta get to the bottom of this thing ourselves." His eyes met Kat's and he immediately pointed to her accusingly. "Don't you think I'm not pissed about that little—" He paused when Sam cleared his throat, and turned around to see a sheriff with two FBI agents.

"Can I help you three?" The sheriff asked gruffly.

"—no, sir, we were just leaving." Dean nodded to the FBI agents as they passed. "Agent Mulder, Agent Scully." He luckily didn't see Kat's eye roll as the three of them headed past the sheriff and back to the Impala. Sam got in, but Dean's hand came up quickly to shut the back door when Kat tried to open it.

She looked up at him. "What?"

"Seriously?" He gestured to the side where she had elbowed him.

"You know I don't like it when you talk to people like that. They may not know what we know, Dean, but they're doing their best."

"They're not going to find shit! It's up to us."

"Dean." She reached out, squeezing his arm gently. She knew from the way he was acting and his words to Sam before, this was all because of his dad. The hunt just happened to be there, too. "We will figure this out, okay? It doesn't matter if they do or not. We're gonna take care of this, then we're gonna find your dad."

He looked at her, jaw clenched, eyes searching her face for a hint of doubt or dishonesty, before he opened the car door and climbed in. She got in with a sigh, not very surprised to see Sam looking awkward in the front seat. The Impala wasn't exactly soundproof.

"What now?" Sam asked as Dean started the car, before any sort of awkward silence could occur.

"We find his girlfriend. Annie or whatever—"

"Amy." Kat and Sam corrected him in unison.

"—and question her. She's gotta have some sort of hint or something to give us a lead." He started to drive down the highway, towards the town of Jericho. It wasn't far and the town really was small. There was a girl hanging posters at a movie theater, so Dean parked the car in front of some little restaurant and they all got out without a word. "I'll bet ya that's her."

"Yeah." Sam's one-word response was the vocal equivalent of an eye roll.

They walked up to the girl as she put up posters, obviously dressed for the cool weather in furry boots and a fringed jacket. "You must be Amy," Dean said.

She barely glanced at them. "Yeah."

"Yeah, Troy told us about you. We're his uncles. I'm Dean, this is Sammy." He pointed to Sam, then looked at Kat. "Sammy's wife, Kat."

The two shared a look, before Sam shook his head in response to both the nickname and their sudden pairing.

"He never mentioned you to me." She started walking away.

Dean was quick to keep up with her, sighing. "Well, that's Troy, I guess. We're not around much, we're up in Modesto." He was always a little too good at lying.

"So, we're looking for him, too, and we're kinda asking around," Sam added in, while he and Dean moved into the girl's path to stop her.

"Hey." Another girl quickly walked over, touching Amy's arm. "Are you okay?" Obviously, two imposing men getting in a young woman's way didn't exactly look very good.

"Yeah." Amy assured her with a nod, but the other girl crossed her arms when she looked at the two Winchesters.

Kat quickly swooped in, moving to push between Sam and Dean, in hopes that her presence with the boys would make them seem a little less...creepy, for lack of a better word. "Is it okay if we ask you some questions?"

 

* * *

 

Kat was still between Sam and Dean as they sat in a booth at a nearby diner, across the table from Amy and, as they had found out with a little chit chat on the walk over, her friend Rachel. She would have been squished between the boys were it not for Dean's arm being slung over the back of the booth.

"I was on the phone with Troy. He was driving home. He said he would call me right back, and, uh," Amy sighed slightly, voice trembling with worry. "He never did."

"He didn't say anything strange? Or out of the ordinary?" Sam prodded her gently. If they could get anything even slightly weird, it would be good enough.

"No. Nothing I can remember." She looked away.

As they spoke, Kat couldn't help but stare at Amy's necklace. It was simple, a silver chain with a circular pendant that held a pentagram inside it. Amy seemed more grunge than girly girl, so the necklace easily could have been something she thought was stylish...and yet...

"I like your necklace," Kat said, trying to bring it up casually. "It's a pentagram, right?" Well, it wasn't like she was about to spill every detail of information she knew about pentagrams; that was a good way to look creepy.

Amy looked down, before stroking the necklace fondly. "Thanks...Troy gave it to me. Mostly to scare my parents, with all that devil stuff..." She laughed, just as Sam did, though the latter did so for a different reason.

"Actually, it's the opposite. A pentagram is protection against evil...really powerful. I mean, if you believe in that kind of thing..." His explanation almost made Kat glad, since she couldn't explain it herself. Though their went Kat's brief, unspoken theory of the girlfriend having something to do with it.

Dean rolled his eyes and pulled his arm off the back of the seat, leaning forward with his elbows on the table. "Here's the deal, ladies. The way Troy disappeared, something's not right. So if you've heard anything..." The girls exchanged a look. "—what is it?"

Rachel shrugged, before explaining, "Well, it's just...I mean, with all these guys going missing, people talk."

"What do they talk about?" Sam and Dean asked in unison. They may have been separated for years, but they fell back into place easily enough.

"—it's kinda this local legend." Rachel seemed hesitant, like she knew what she was about to say was silly. "This one girl...she got murdered out on Centennial, like, decades ago. Well, supposedly, she's still out there." She earned an encouraging nod from Sam to continue. "She hitchikes, and whoever picks her up...well, they...disappear forever."

Bingo.

Sam and Dean looked at each other, then Kat. She looked back and forth between them to let them know she got it, too, which was a bit awkward.

"Alright." Dean dug in his jacket pocket, pulling out some almost-forgotten cash that was probably enough to cover the coffee and drinks the five of them ordered, tossing it onto the table as he stood up. "We gotta get going."

"You've been a lot of help, seriously," Sam said, as he and Kat slid out of the booth.

The boys nodded their thanks and started towards the exit; Kat's steps faltered. She looked back at the girls, seeing Rachel comforting Amy, who seemed to be more distraught now that she wasn't being interrogated. She couldn't help the empathy that filled her for the poor girl; she clearly loved Troy. It didn't help that her obvious emotions and the hundreds of posters she likely put up were like a visual of Dean's own suppressed feelings of worry for his father.

"We're gonna find Troy." Maybe that was weird, coming from your boyfriend's secret Uncle Sammy's wife, but it needed to be said. "We're gonna find him, okay?" She nodded as Amy's teary eyes met hers, then turned to leave with Sam and Dean. She just hoped she could keep that promise.

She hoped there was enough left of Troy to find.

 

* * *

 

They had gone to the library to find out any information they could about the woman that Rachel had mentioned. Dean sat at a computer and typed different variations of the murder into the search page for the local newspaper, Sam sat beside him to watch, and Kat paced a bit behind them.

"Let me try." Sam got a smack on the hand from his brother when he reached over to touch the keyboard. He quickly retaliated by shoving Dean's chair out of the way, scooting his own chair in front of the computer and ignoring the hit Dean gave him on the shoulder.

"Dude! You're such a control freak," he growled, moving back over.

"So angry spirits are born out of violent death, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, maybe it's not murder."

Kat paused in her pacing as Sam said this, walking over and leaning on the backs of the boys' chairs, watching Sam replace the word 'murder' with 'suicide'. A result immediately came up and he clicked on it, bringing up a short article with a picture of a pretty, young woman.

"This was 1981. Constance Welch, twenty-four years old, jumps off Sylvania Bridge, drowns in the river."

"Say why she did it?" Dean asked.

"Yeah." Sam furrowed his brow as he read, sighing almost painfully as Dean asked what the reason was. "An hour before they found her, she calls 911. Apparently, her two little kids are in the bathtub. She leaves them alone for a minute, and when she comes back, they aren't breathing. Both die."

"Shit," Kat breathed out. "If anything's gonna bring out a pissed spirit, that's gonna do it."

"'Our babies were gone, and Constance just couldn't bear it', said husband Joseph Welch." As he scrolled through the page, a picture of a bridge came up.

Dean looked at his brother and Kat. "That bridge look familiar to you?"

 

* * *

 

They had to wait until nighttime before they could go to the bridge, sure that the cops would be gone and the car taken away. They didn't really know that they were going to find, but hoped that the ghost of Constance might show.

In retrospect, it was a pretty horrible thing to hope for.

The three walked along the bridge, stopping at one point to look out over the railing, to the water below. "So, this is where Constance took the swan dive." He felt a jab to his left side like before, glaring at Kat. "Really? Again with the elbow?"

"You could stand to be a little more sensitive."

"I'm just not a sensitive guy."

"Oh, yes, you—"

"So you think Dad would have been here?" Sam interrupted the growing banter, looking at Dean.

"—well, he's chasing the same story and we're chasing him." He shrugged and moved from the railing continuing along the bridge.

Sam hesitated for a second before following, while Kat stayed behind to stare down at the water. "Okay, so now what?"

"Now we keep digging until we find him. Might take a while." That had Sam stopping.

"Dean," frustration was immediately growing in his tone, "I told you, I've gotta get back by Monday—"

 

"Monday." Dean finished for him, turning to face him. "Right. The interview. Yeah." He seemed calmer than Sam, but something was hiding just beneath the surface.

"Yeah."

"I forgot. You're really serious about this, aren't you? You think you're just going to become some lawyer? Marry your girl?" There it was. The bitterness creeping in. Maybe it was his jealousy over Sam having that normal life right within reach, or maybe it was just that he was insulted by Sam's lack of care for their dad.

Kat just knew that she had to step in before one of them ended up thrown over the side of the bridge. "Guys, don't do this..." She walked over to them.

"Maybe. Why not?"

"Does Jessica know the truth about you? I mean, does she know about the things you've done?"

Sam started to walk closer and Kat immediately stepped in between them, holding her hands out. "Seriously. Please. Can't we do this later? We'll have a whole ride back to Stanford." It seemed that neither of them were listening.

"No. And she's not ever going to know."

"Well, that's healthy," Dean said sarcastically. "You can pretend all you want, Sammy, but sooner or later you're going to have to face up to who you are." Then he turned and started walking away, and Kat thought for a blissful moment that they might just drop it.

But this was Sam and Dean. Stubborn and stubborn. Sure, she was stubborn, too, but she wasn't part of this argument.

Sam followed to continue and Kat followed to do her best at keeping it under control. "And who's that?"

"You're one of us." Dean said it like it was obvious, gesturing to Kat with a shrug.

"No," Sam practically laughed, rushing to get in front of Dean. "I'm not like you guys. This is not going to be my life."

Somehow, that stung. The implication that they chose that life, that they enjoyed every minute of it, stung. Dean did it out of allegiance to his father and Kat did it, honestly, out of loyalty to Dean, who deserved so little to be in this by himself. And, like Dean had said before, they saved a lot of people doing it. Maybe they could leave, just like Sam, but where would the world be if they did?

"You have a responsibility to—"

"To Dad? And his crusade?" Sam's words were stinging Dean, too. It could be seen in his eyes, where his emotions usually stayed. "If it weren't for pictures, I wouldn't even know what Mom looks like. And what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, Mom's gone. And she isn't coming back."

That broke the usual mask that Dean's emotions hid behind. He immediately grabbed Sam by the collar and shoved him against the railing.

"Dean!" Kat ran after them, a hand going to his shoulder. Partly to keep him from doing something he would regret. Partly to comfort him. His shoulder relaxed beneath her touch, as he stared at Sam for a long moment.

"Don't talk about her like that."

Kat didn't move her hand until Dean finally released Sam. She sighed with relief as the argument finally seemed to be over, and turned away. That's when she saw it. A woman stood on the railing, ready to jump, her dress blowing in the wind. "—Dean. Sam."

They turned to look on in confusion as the woman glanced at them. Then stepped off.

The three of them immediately ran to the other side of the bridge, like they could catch her even though she had already jumped. "Where'd she go?" Dean asked. The water below was empty.

"I don't know."

Kat's eyes scanned the water. "Wasn't that—"

The sound of a car starting filled the air and a bright light suddenly cast over them. They looked over to see the light coming from the Impala's headlights. Dean furrowed his brow, moving away from the railing. "What the—"

"Who's driving your car?"

"Did you leave the keys in or somethi—" Kat's words faltered to almost a whimper when Dean pulled the keys out of his pocket. This was certainly something new to them.

As if on cue, the car immediately squealed out of its parking spot, heading right towards them and gaining speed quickly.

"Dean—" Sam grabbed his brother. "Go, go!"

Dean quickly grabbed Kat, pushing her in front of them as they started running as fast as their legs could carry them. Unfortunately, no matter how much time they had spent running in their lives, they weren't faster than a car. It was gaining on them too quickly.

"Kat, jump, now!"

She didn't know if it was Sam or Dean who said that, and frankly, she didn't care or intend to argue. She grabbed onto the railing and vaulted over the side of the bridge, soaring down to the water below.

She thought she'd expect it when she hit the water, but she didn't. It was colder, and rougher, and deeper than she could have imagined, and she didn't get the best breath in before she went under, immediately struggling to get to the surface. It felt like hours before her head finally made it above water and she gasped for air, looking up to see she had ended up under the bridge. "Dean!" She cried out, looking around. "Sam!"

"Kat? Where are you?" Sam's voice came from above.

"Under the bridge, I—" She sputtered as she got a mouthful of water, kicking her legs to stay above the surface.

"Kat! Come on! Over here!"

Oh, God, it was Dean. He was somewhere ahead of her. She wasn't the best swimmer, but she was going to be that night, as she kicked and swam until her feet finally touched the bottom. She did her best to walk, though jumping off a bridge and swimming for her life was a touch exhausting and she felt heavy from her soaked clothes, so she had fallen to her hands and knees by the time she made it to land, collapsing next to an extremely muddy Dean Winchester. "We're never doing that again." She was panting slightly. No monster or hunt had ever exerted her as much as that water did.

"Oh? You didn't want to go for another ride?"

She would have glared it him, but instead directed it at Sam, who let out a chuckle from where he was on the side of the bridge. "That better have been a laugh of relief for our well-being, Sam Winchester!"

"Come on, Kat." Dean got up, taking her hand and gripping it tightly when their hold nearly slipped from the mud, steadying her on her feet. "You okay?"

"I'm okay. Are you okay?"

"Been better."

They made their way back up to the bridge, still gripping each other's hands tightly once they were on safer ground, neither of them really noticing. It wasn't until they made it to the Impala and Sam cleared his throat that they realized, pulling away from each other. Kat leaned against the car and Dean went to check the engine.

"Hey," Sam's soft voice had Kat looking up. "Are you okay?" Eyes full of concern. The Sam she once knew flickered across his face, sweet and caring and there.

The desire for him to come back flickered in her, but it left as soon as it came. He had an interview on Monday. He had Jessica. He had a life, and she chose hers the day he went off to find his. She really did choose it, didn't she? She couldn't be hurt by his words from before now. They all made choices and he had given her a new one. She was the one who passed him up on it.

"I'm fine, Sam." She did her best to smile. Why was being around Sam again so painful and complicated? Why didn't she expect it to be that way?

He nodded, seemingly satisfied with her answer, and sauntered over to Dean. "Car alright?"

"Yeah, whatever she did to it, seems alright now." Dean shut the hood of the car. "That Constance chick, what a bitch!" He shouted out into the empty air, as if she were listening.

"That's the kind of thing that's gonna get her trying to run us over again, Dean-o." Kat moved around to the front of the car, sitting on the hood of the car as Dean did.

"Well, she doesn't want us digging around, that's for sure." Sam looked around, before sitting on what room was left of the hood. "So where's the job go from here, genius?" All Dean could do was shrug in frustration. Sam sighed, sniffed, and paused, "—you smell like a toilet."

 

* * *

 

Kat leaned against the Impala, waiting outside a motel for Sam and Dean to check out a room for them. She was positive she smelled just as bad as Dean, so maybe baking in the sun wasn't the best idea, but it was better than the weird look she'd get from the clerk. It gave her time to think anyway.

About how, even though a few fights were being picked here and there, things were starting to feel like the old days. The car ride to the motel had been jokes and bantering, probably because they were all a little delirious. Even Sam had lightened up considerably.

She had already come to terms with him leaving twice — once when he left, again when it was definitively confirmed that he'd be back at Stanford by Monday — and now she was going to have to miss him again. It wasn't fair. She was always going to want to let him go and also have him stay. It made her feel insane to be so indecisive.

At least it wouldn't be as hard as the first time. This wasn't really the Sam she missed. This was hardly even a Sam she knew, even if there were little glimpses of him there.

"Kat," Dean called to her as he and Sam walked out. "Come on, get up."

She pushed off the car, following them. "You shouldn't rush me. I'm getting the shower first, you know."

"Couldn't care less. Our dad got a room here."

"Wait, what?"

Well, that had to be yet another thing she hadn't expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that wasn't too bad lol...I'm sorry if it was a little rough. Things should get better and more collected as the episodes go on. I'm just hoping you could all follow it! I hope you all enjoyed it.


	3. Pilot: Part Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the rest of the pilot! I hope you're all enjoying it so far. Hopefully things will pick up with time lol
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC, Katherine.

* * *

 

 

Kat stood with crossed arms, watching Sam pick the lock to John's hotel room while Dean kept a look out for anyone. Sam had always been exceptional at picking locks, so she wasn't surprised he had remembered, but was a little surprised that he was so willing to do it. Maybe he was just hoping John was in there so he could go back to college and live his normal, safe life.

There was a click and then Sam carefully pushed the door open, taking out the lock pick as he did so, before moving into the room. Kat crept into the room, not really sure why she felt the need to be quiet, but knowing it was always better to be safe than sorry. There could always be something lurking around when they least expected it. She nearly jumped when Sam quickly reached past her, sighing when he pulled an oblivious Dean into the room after them and slammed the door shut. She shook her head with an amused smile and turned to survey the room.

"—oh my God." The room was a shambles. Every single surface was covered with one thing or another. Salt canisters and equipment covered an end table, while various books covered the other as well as the complimentary desk that sat along one wall of the room. Even the bed was put to use, the covers all rumpled and even more equipment on that, as well as an open suitcase. The only thing that was slightly organized were papers and photos pinned to almost every inch of available wall space. Clues? Connections? John had clearly been doing some thorough work while he was there; but he didn't seem to be there now.

Dean went over to turn on a light, allowing the three of them to get a better look. There was a ring of salt around the perimeter of the door, which Sam and Kat stepped over carefully, so as not to disturb it. "You'd think he was running away from something..." She shuddered to think how easily that could be true. She looked around, then caught sight of Dean out of the corner of her eye, sniffing a forgotten fast food burger. "Seriously?" At least he had the decency to look disgusted over how it smelled.

"I don't think he's been here for a couple days, at least." He tossed the burger back down where he'd found it.

Sam crouched down by the salt, picking some up. So much for that whole 'being-careful-not-to-disturb-the-salt' idea. "Salt? Cats-eye shells? He was worried." He dropped the salt and stood up. "Kat's right, it's like he was running from something...trying to keep something from coming in."

"I mean, he was hunting the same ghost we are, right?" Kat walked over to some papers on the wall that Dean was looking at. "Maybe he was trying to keep her away? Though I can't imagine she'd leave the highway or the bridge..."

"What do you got here?" Sam moved over.

"Centennial Highway victims." Dean's eyes scanned over each individual paper that his dad had put up. "I don't get it. I mean, different men, different jobs, ages, ethnicities. There's always a connection, right? What do these guys have in common?"

"Maybe they all knew Constance?" Kat sighed, shaking her head. "No, that doesn't make any sense. Troy probably wasn't even born yet when Constance killed herself." She looked over when another light turned on, seeing Sam looking at another wall of papers. "What's up?"

"—Dad figured it out."

Now Dean looked over. "What do you mean?"

"He found the same article we did. Constance Welch. She's a woman in white."

Dean turned back to look at the photos of the victims. "You sly dogs..."

"Wait, a woman in white? Isn't that, like..."

"She kills men who are unfaithful." Sam continued to look at the wall.

"Oh." Kat pursed her lips. "So, basically, the connection between these guys is that they're all sleazeballs? Or sly dogs?" She gave Dean a look, which made him quick to change the subject.

"Alright, so if we're dealing with a woman in white, Dad would have found the corpse and destroyed it."

"She might have another weakness."

"Well, Dad would wanna make sure." He walked to where Sam was standing. "He'd dig her up. Does it say where she's buried?"

"No, not that I can tell. If I were Dad, though, I'd go ask her husband." Sam reached out to tap on the article, over a picture of Constance's husband, Joseph Welch. "If he's still alive."

"Is he a sleazeball, too?" Kat moved next to Dean, looking at a picture that was apparently a depiction of a woman in white. "You know what's nice? I can't be bait for this if she is a woman in white. If necessary, I volunteer you." She bumped her shoulder against Dean's to let him know she was joking.

"Yeah, yeah. If you're not gonna be any use to us, then how's about you find the husband's address? I'm gonna get cleaned up."

"I have to get cleaned up, too, you know."

"Unless you wanna conserve water, you're just gonna have to wait." He gave her a smirk, before going towards the bathroom.

"Hey, Dean?" Sam's voice stopped him. "What I said earlier, about Mom and Dad...I'm sorry—"

Dean quickly held up a hand. "No chick-flick moments."

"Alright," Sam laughed, "Jerk."

"Bitch." With that, Dean retreated into the bathroom to shower.

Kat watched the exhange with a little smile. Throughout her time with them, she had heard those two names a good handful of times. It somehow showed the love they had for each other. It was weird, sure, but it didn't matter how weird something was if it worked. And, though it wouldn't last, she enjoyed seeing them be brothers again. Dean needed it; Sam probably needed it, too.

Maybe it would last. Sam would go back to college, but maybe the two brothers could have a relationship again. Separation and Sam's strict no hunting policy didn't mean they couldn't visit each other and meet up places, have lunch, do whatever it was that brothers do.

Maybe she could have a relationship with Sam again. It may not be as close, now that he had Jess to be his confidant, but it would still be nice to have even half of their friendship back.

She looked over at him, saw him looking fondly at a picture of John with two little boys who weren't hard to figure out, and walked over with a smile. "Too bad I didn't get to be around when you two were that cute."

"Hmm?" He glanced at her. "Oh. Right. At least I was still kinda cute..."

"Ah, you've both always been cute. Adorable, even." They had their moments anyway. She couldn't say they were precious _all the time_.

Sam smiled slightly, putting the picture into his pocket. "So..." His voice suddenly sounded a bit more serious. "You and Dean have gotten close, huh?" His hands went into his pockets and he moved back across the room as Kat insinctively followed.

"Dean and me? I mean...yeah..." For a second, she was puzzled as to why he brought it up; then she remembered those changes. Sam had noticed.

"I'm not ragging on you or anything, it's just...last time I saw you guys, all you did was bicker, you know? Now...you're still bickering, but something seems...different. I mean, the hand-holding on the bridge?"

"—you left, Sam." She hastened to explain herself when he started to look upset. "And I'm not saying that to hurt you or guilt you...but it's just been Dean and me since then. John's there, yeah, but...you get what I mean. It's just been Dean and me." She nodded, and he looked dissatisfied, but she moved past him anyway. "I'm gonna go find out that address, okay?"

 

* * *

 

Kat had found the address for Joseph Welch's house and Dean was still in the shower, so she had taken to a little sink that the motel room had against the wall near the bathroom door, cleaning up as best as she could with hand soap and a cloth. She wouldn't exactly enter a beauty pageant in her current state, but at least she looked and smelled nearly presentable considering what little she had to work with. Most of the mud was out of her hair, at least.

She could just hear a feminine voice and looked over to see that Sam was on his phone, presumably listening to a voice mail or something from Jess.

"All yours, Kat." Dean walked out of the bathroom, no less than squeaky clean. Kat almost coveted him in that moment. "I'm starving, I'm gonna grab a little something to eat in that diner down the street." He grabbed his jacket and pulled it halfway on. "You guys want anything?"

Sam, seeming to create a pattern here, immediately said, "No."

"Aframian's buying." Another denial from Sam, so he looked at Kat. "I know you gotta be hungry by now."

Damn if he wasn't right. "French fries? It's been a while since I've had any that don't come in a paper bag." She watched him go, then headed into the bathroom, figuring he'd take long enough for her to get in a quick shower.

Alright. Maybe the light was too dim in the other room. Sure, she wasn't caked with mud, but she still looked like a wreck. An exhausted, still-slightly-damp wreck. Her face looked mostly clean, the only problem there was the bags under her eyes; she hadn't slept since before they got to Jericho, and the 'jumping off a bridge' thing didn't help matters much.

She had just turned away from the mirror and started to take off her stiff, dirty shirt when Sam suddenly burst through the door. "Sam! What the—"

"Out the window, now." He locked the door behind him.

"What's going on?" The only answer she got was a shove towards the window. "Alright, alright." She conceded, knowing full well that he had a very good, urgent reason to want her out the window. She climbed up onto the toilet tank and shoved the window open, pulling herself through. It was a tight fit, but she managed to wiggle through it and jump down to the ground below. She was genuinely surprised that Sam actually got out without too much trouble.

Something really bad was happening if someone like him could fit through a window like that.

"Sam, what's going on? Is it the woman in white?"

"Worse." He skulked around to the corner of the building and Kat followed his lead, both of them glancing around to the parking lot. "Cops. They spotted Dean." They both winced as there was a slam, followed by a voice reading Dean the Miranda rights. "We're gonna have to keep going without him. You got the address?"

"Um, yeah, but Dean's being arrested. What are we gonna do about this?"

"It's Dean. He'll be fine."

"And if he's not?"

"—he'll be fine. Shh, shh." He pushed her back behind the motel, pressing against the wall next to her and listening. There was a door slam. Two voices. Two more door slams. Then, after what felt like an eternity, a car starting and wheels moving along asphalt. "Wait here, okay?" He cautiously moved around the building.

She would have let him know that she was perfectly capable of checking for danger as much as he was, but getting arrested wasn't on the top of her to-do list. Sam's hand appeared from around the corner, signaling for her to come, and she quickly followed him out to the parking lot. No one was towing away the Impala, which was a plus given the current twist of events.

"Time to pay Joseph Welch a visit."

 

* * *

 

Dean sat at a table in the sheriff's office, watching as the sheriff walked in and set down a box of of papers. "So you wanna give us your real name?"

"I told you, it's Nugent. Ted Nugent."

The sheriff just looked at him. "I'm not sure you realize just how much trouble you're in here."

"We talkin' like misdemeanor kind of trouble or, uh, squeal like a pig trouble?" He always had to be a smart ass.

"You got the faces of ten missing persons taped to your wall, along with a whole lotta Satanic mumbo-jumbo. Boy, you are officially a suspect."

"That makes sense." Dean sighed. "'Cause when the first one went missing in '82, I was three."

"I know you got partners, one of 'em's an older guy. Maybe he started the whole thing." The sheriff reached into the box, taking out a journal. "So tell me, Dean," he stressed the name to let him know he knew, before tossing the journal onto the table. "This is?" He came around and sat on the table when all Dean did was stare at the book, and he moved to go through a few pages. "I thought that might be your name. See, I leafed through this...what little I could make out. I mean, it's nine kinds of crazy, but I found this, too." He finally stopped on a page that had 'DEAN 35-111' written in a circle. He looked at Dean when he leaned forward to look. "Now, you're stayin' right here 'til you tell me exactly what that means."

All Dean did was stare for a long moment, before looking at the sheriff with a shrug.

 

* * *

 

Sam and Kat trudged up the driveway to Joseph Welch's house, the latter sighing. "I wish I had gotten a shower in. He may find me...a bit disconcerting. Hey, maybe he'll think I'm some sort of swamp monster and tell us everything he knows out of fear." All she got from Sam was a look as he knocked on the door of the house.

A moment passed, before an aging man opened up the door, and Sam quickly put on a bright smile. "Hi! Are you Joseph Welch?"

"Yeah." The man said with a smile so unexpectedly sweet that Kat kind of felt bad for calling him a sleazeball before.

"I'm Sam and this is my...partner, Katherine." He may have left out surnames and lied about their relationship, but he didn't seem keen on making up fake names like Dean and John liked to. She wasn't sure if he'd forgotten from being out of hunting for so long, or he was just a better person than the three of them. Maybe a little bit of both. "We were wondering if we could ask you a few questions."

Joseph looked at them a little strangely for a moment, before agreeing and stepping out of the house, shutting the door. He nodded for them to walk with him. "A fella came by here, wantin' to ask questions."

"We're actually looking for someone, and were wondering if he came by here." Sam took the photo of him, Dean, and their dad out of his pocket, handing it to Joseph. "Is this him?"

"—yeah, he was older, but that's him." He handed the photo back. "He came by three or four days ago. Said he was a reporter."

"That's right, we're working on a story together."

"Three of you on one story?" He looked back at them with a raised eyebrow. "Well, I don't know what the hell kinda story you're working on. The questions he asked me?"

"About your wife Constance?"

"He asked me where she was buried."

"And where is that again?" Sam wasn't great at subtlety sometimes. Sure, the inflections in his question were just right, but just flat out asking was weird. Even for a 'reporter'.

"What, I gotta go through this twice?"

"It's fact-checking." Kat quickly chimed in. "Besides, with him being MIA and all, we want to make sure we all have the same information."

Joseph sighed. "In a plot. Behind my old place over on Breckenridge."

"And why did you move?" Sam asked.

"I'm not gonna live in the house...where my children died."

They stopped walking. Now Kat felt _really_ bad for calling him a sleazeball before. Yeah, possibly cheating on his wife did make him horrible, but he was still human and still lost his kids just as much as Constance did.

"Mr. Welch, did you ever marry again?" She couldn't help the look she gave Sam when he asked that. What did that have to do with anything?

"No way. Constance...she was the love of my life." He smiled almost sadly. "Prettiest woman I ever known."

"So you had a happy marriage?"

Now she got it. Sam was pushing Joseph to see if he had been unfaithful; if he had pushed Constance into being a woman in white. The slight hesitation before he answered said just about everything.

"—definitely."

Sam looked at Kat, before nodding, "Well, that should do it. Thanks for your time." He gestured for Kat to follow them and they moved to get in the Impala while Joseph started back towards his house. "You think he knows?"

"I highly doubt it. He just seems like a normal guy..."

He nodded again. A moment passed before he called out, "Mr. Welch, did you ever hear of a woman in white?"

Joseph turned around. "A what?"

"A woman in white. Or sometimes weeping woman?" All he got was a stare, so he continued on in hopes of getting some sort of information. "It's a ghost story. Well, it's more of a phenomen, really..." He put the car keys into his pocket, walking back over to Joseph. "Um, they're spirits. They've been sighted for hundreds of years, dozens of places, in Hawaii, Mexico, lately in Arizona, Indiana. All these are different women, you understand?" He stopped to stand in front of the older man. Kat decided to hang back by the car, not wanting to make them look any crazier than Sam was. "But all share the same story."

"Boy, I don't care much for nonsense." Joseph started to walk away again and Sam only followed. Now Kat had to join, a bit fearful that this situation might end up like the little scuffle on the bridge if Sam pushed him too much.

"See, when they were alive, their husbands were unfaithful to them." That got Joseph to stop again. "And these women, basically suffering from temporary insanity, murdered their children." Sam's words were gentle, but made the man turn around. "Then once they realized what they had done, they took their own lives. So now their spirits are cursed, walking back roads, waterways. And if they find an unfaithful man, they kill him. And that man is never seen again."

Joseph's bottom lip was quivering from emotion. "You think...you think that has something to do with...Constance?" He moved closer to Sam. "You smart ass?"

"You tell me."

"Sam..."

"I mean...maybe...maybe I made some mistakes." Tears were gathering in his eyes. "But no matter what I did, Constance never would have killed her own children. Now you get the hell out of here! And you don't ever come back." He was shaking, glaring at Sam for a long moment, before he turned and walked away.

"We're sorry, sir!" Kat called out to him. What more could she say? It was clear that he had cheated on Constance and she really was the woman in white. All she could do was apologize for upsetting him, for letting him wonder if it were his fault that his children were gone. He didn't even want them there now, so it wasn't like she could make up some lie about how they had mixed something up or thought wrongly. She sighed and reached out to tug on Sam's sleeve. "Let's get out of here, okay?" They moved back to the Impala. "We can get a bite to eat, think things through...rescue Dean, probably."

 

* * *

 

It wasn't until after the sun set that they were back on the highway, on the way to Breckenridge Road to take care of Constance's body under the cover of night, to lower the risk of being seen just in case anyone passed by. They had had a late lunch, got all the supplies they needed to get rid of the bones, and, lastly, did what they could to get Dean out of trouble.

Sam's phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket, flipping it open.

_"Fake 911 phone call, Sammy? I don't know, that's pretty illegal."_

"Hey, it was Kat's idea. I just did the dirty work." He grinned. Kat didn't share in his glee, instead looking out the window with her arms crossed.

Something just felt...wrong.

_"Listen, we gotta talk."_

  
"Tell me about it. So the husband was unfaithful. We are dealing with a woman in white. And she's buried behind her old house, so that should have been Dad's next stop."

_"Sammy, would you shut up for a second?"_

"I just can't figure out why he hasn't destroyed the corpse yet."

_"Well, that's what I'm trying to tell you! He's gone. Dad left Jericho."_

"What? How do you know?"

_"I've got his journal."_

"He doesn't go anywhere without that thing."

_"Yeah, well, he did this time."_

"What's it say?"

_"Ah, it's the same old ex-marine shit, when he wants to let us know where he's going."_

"Coordinates. Where to?"

_"I'm not sure yet."_

"Sam, stop the car." Kat blurted it out before she could stop herself. There was just a large amount of pressure and _wrongness_ , and she felt like she was going to pass out right there if she didn't get some fresh air. "Sam, stop the car right now!"

"Ho-hold on, Dean." Sam honestly looked a little scared as he glanced at Kat, slowly stopping the car. "Kat, are you okay?"

She didn't answer him, shoving the car door open and stumbling out. Immediately, the horrible feeling lessened as she breathed in the cool night air. Of course, it could only last so long, before she saw Constance standing there in the middle of the dark road.

"What could be so important that Dad would just skip out in the middle of a job? Dean, what the hell is going on?" Sam had carried on the conversation with Dean, though he kept casting worried looks at Kat.

"Sam...Sam?" She glanced away for just a second, and when she looked back, the road ahead of the car was empty.

"—take me home." She heard a female voice and turned to look, seeing a figure sitting in the back seat of the car. "Take. Me. Home."

"—no. Kat, get in the car, now."

She didn't need to be told twice. That wrong feeling from before practically forgotten, she moved to get back into the car. Unfortunately, the door slammed shut and there was a familiar clicking sound of the locks. "Sam!" She grabbed onto the door handle, but of course, it wasn't going to open. She could see Sam through the window, trying to unlock the door to no avail. That feeling had to have been Constance's doing, right? Somehow she had manipulated something, to get her out of the car, to get to Sam. Had Sam been unfaithful to Jess? It was impossible. It was Sam.

Dean was right about Constance. What a bitch.

There was no time to dwell on that, though, as Kat had to quickly jump out of the way as the car started to drive. "Sam! Shit!" She may not have been fast enough to outrun a car that was chasing after her, but she hoped and prayed she had more of a chance to run after a car and chase it instead.

She ran faster than she ever had in her damn life. She wasn't about to let Sam get killed by some crazy ghost with a grudge, though later she would be thankful that the house wasn't too far and that the car stopped just outside of it; it wasn't like she was prepared to run a marathon here. Still, she was panting slightly as she caught up to the now parked car, trying fruitlessly to get one of the doors open. "Sam!"

Sam sat in the front seat still, looking at Constance through the rearview mirror. "Don't do this."

"I can never go home," she said sadly, staring at the house.

"—you're scared to go home." Suddenly, she was gone from the mirror and Sam turned to look at the empty backseat. When he turned back, she was sitting in the passenger's side, wasting no time in climbing onto him, slamming him down hard enough to recline the seat and make him groan in pain.

"Hold me...I'm so cold..."

Kat had given up on opening the door, looking around instead for something she could break the window with. Dean might kill her, but she was sure he'd forgive her if it was all to save his brother. "Come on...come on...iron would be real convenient right now!" She glared up at the sky as if someone up there could drop down an iron rod or something.

"You can't kill me." Sam did his best to ignore Constance's advances, the way she was rocking against him. "I'm not unfaithful. I never have been."

"You will be," she threatened, before cupping his face and kissing him deeply.

He grunted in disgust, reaching past her, trying to get a hold of the car keys, when she suddenly sat up. She flickered, her face looking far more torn apart and a lot less pretty than it had before, and she disappeared. It couldn't have been that easy, right? Nothing had even happened to stop her. A sharp, strong pain suddenly bloomed in his chest and he cried out, hurriedly unzipping his hoodie to see five holes burned into his shirt.

"Please, for the love of..." For an old, broken down house, it sure as hell didn't leave any parts around for anyone to break a car window with. It may have been an oddly specific need, but that didn't mean it was too much to ask. Kat was about to rip something straight off the house when she heard Sam's cry. "No!" She ran to the window, seeing Constance on top of him, slowly digging her hand into his chest. "Sam! Get off of him!" She felt helpless, smacking her palms on the glass, willing it to break so she could try to take the ghost on without any weapons.

"Kat, get down!" A gruff, wonderfully familiar voice shouted behind her. She ducked down just as several gunshots went off, shattering the window. She scrambled out of the way and stood up, watching Constance disappear and reappear, only for more bullets to enter the car until she disappeared again.

Sam, still groaning in pain, quickly sat up and started the car. "I'm taking you home!" He slammed down on the gas pedal, driving the car straight up the driveway and in through the front of the house.

"Sam!" Dean shouted after him like the hero he didn't think he was. He ran to the house with Kat hot on his heels, stopping for just a second and holding his hand out to keep her back just in case something was amiss, before nodding and continuing inside. "Sam! You okay?" He moved up to the car.

"I think..."

"Can you move?" He yanked the door open.

"Yeah. Help me?"

Dean leaned in to pull Sam out of the car, not getting another word in before Kat ran over and grabbed onto the younger Winchester. "Are you okay? Shit, Sam, I tried to do something..."

"I know, Kat, I know—" He suddenly flinched, pulling her back protectively between himself and Dean.

Constance stood ahead of them, though she wasn't paying them any attention. She stared sadly at a photo she was holding. Suddenly, her eyes snapped up and she glared at them, tossing the picture aside. A dresser against one wall slid forward, slamming against them before they could react and pinning them to the car. Any one of them probably could have shoved that dresser away by themselves, but Constance's power kept it there no matter how hard the three of them pushed. She started towards them, clearly not caring about gender or fidelity now.

"I felt bad for you before, Constance, but now?" Kat grunted, pushing the dresser uselessly. "I don't really know how I feel. Kind of pissed." If she was going to go out because of a ghost, she didn't want to go out whimpering.

The lights suddenly turned on, flickering. Even Constance looked around in confusion, turning as water started to drip down the stairs. She stared at the top of the stairs, at two children who stood there, and she flickered in and out of sight until she stood at the bottom.

All Dean, Sam, and Kat could do was stare in confusion and disbelief.

The children joined hands, speaking in unison, "You've come home to us, Mommy." They suddenly appeared behind her and she turned to face them, letting out a scream as they quickly embraced her. She screamed over and over, face changing spastically from beautiful to gruesome, she and the children seeming to be dragged into the floor.

Dean flinched, Sam cringed uncomfortably, and Kat closed her eyes tightly. None of them had ever witnessed something like that before, and it was difficult to watch. Constance and her children turned into a puddle on the floor and even most of the puddle evaporated, all power leaving the room.

"—what was that?" Kat slowly opened her eyes, helping the boys to shove the dresser over, before they walked to the little bit of water left on the floor.

"So this is where she drowned the kids." Dean looked at his brother.

Sam nodded. "That's why she could never go home. She was too scared to face them."

"It almost makes me feel bad for her again. Too bad she was horrible."

Dean let out a little laugh. "Yeah. At least you found her weak spot. Nice work, Sammy." He gave Sam a slap on the chest, right where Constance had been digging her way in. Kat gave him a horrified look, reaching out to give Sam a comforting squeeze on the shoulder as he laughed in reaction to the pain.

"Yeah, wish I could say the same for you." He gave her a grateful look as he addressed Dean, turning to watch his brother walk to the car. "What were you thinking shooting Casper in the face, you freak?"

"Hey! Saved your ass. I mean, what was Kat doing? Trying to break the damn window with her fists."

"Excuse me? I spent a good couple of minutes looking around for something to break the window open and save him. You'd think an old house like this would lose a piece of wood or something, but no."

"I keep telling you to carry around a gun. You can't be the one to save the day every time anyway, Kat." He ignored her glare, bending over to look over the Impala. "I'll tell you another thing, Sam. If you screwed up my car..." He looked back at his brother. "I'll kill you."

 

* * *

 

The car was still in working condition at least. They were going back down the highway just fine, Dean driving as per usual, while Sam used a flashlight and a map to check the coordinates John had left, while Kat sat in the backseat in an exhausted silence.

"Okay, here's where Dad went." Sam traced a line on the map. "It's called Blackwater Ridge, Colorado."

"Sounds charming." Dean nodded. "How far?"

Sam looked over the map again. "About six hundred miles."

"Hey, if we shag ass, we could make it by morning."

There was a small beat of awkward silence. "—Dean, I...um..."

"You're not going."

"The interview's in, like, ten hours. I gotta be there."

Kat, despite her exhaustion, could see and feel Dean's disappointment from the backseat. She always could. But he wasn't a man who vocalized his feelings, so he just said, "Yeah. Yeah, whatever. I'll take you home."

And he did. The rest of the ride was completely silent aside from Dean's music, which was even turned down lower than usual. Kat was dozing off by the time they pulled up to Sam's apartment, not really meaning to, though unable to stop herself now that there was a moment of rest.

The door immediately creaked open and then slammed shut, and Sam leaned down to look into the window. "Maybe I can meet up with you later, huh?"

"Yeah, alright." Dean nodded, not really believing him.

"Kat?" Sam's voice made her alert as he moved to the back window. "Hey...sorry...I know you're tired. Me, too. I didn't want to go without saying bye."

She gave him a little smile. "Bye, Sam."

"Bye." He chuckled. "It's been...nice, honestly. I missed you."

"Missed you, too."

"How's about I just call you in a couple days? I'm not really sure how much of this is something you mean and how much is just you repeating what I'm saying."

She blinked until she could focus, sitting up a bit straighter and looking right at him. "I missed you, Sam. Good luck with your interview."

"Thanks, Kat." He smiled, tapping on the door. There was no hug now either. It had still been too long, and a day or two of hunting didn't fix much. He had started to walk away when Dean called out to him, making him turn back.

"You know, we made a hell of a team back there." They had always made a good team. Dean and Kat made a good team, too, but Sam made it...perfect, almost.

He smiled again, nodding slightly. "Yeah."

Dean started the car, putting it in drive and pulling away from the curb. Only a few seconds passed before Kat left the backseat, crawling over the back of the front seat and sitting close to Dean, resting her head on his shoulder. Maybe it was so she could have a pillow. Maybe it was so he could have a little comfort. Maybe it was both.

She had just started to doze off again when that horrible feeling of complete and utter _wrongness_ took over again. At first, her tired mind wondered if Constance was still alive — alive? Around? What would a ghost be considered? — and had somehow followed them.

But Constance had clearly been dragged into some pit of hell by her children.

And this time felt different.

She felt the urgent need to see Sam. Maybe she missed him or he forgot something, she wasn't really sure, but she just knew that they needed to go back. She immediately sat up, earning a confused glance from Dean. "—Dean..."

"You can sleep. It's alright," he said as nonchalantly as he could, trying to pass off his offer as tolerance rather than enjoying her closeness.

"No...that's not..." She shook her head. "Can we go back?"

"What?" He gave her another bemused look, before returning his eyes to the road. "You wanna go back and hug Sammy, don't ya?"

"No...I..." The farther the car went, the more unbearable the feeling became. She couldn't focus on anything except for getting back to Sam. "Turn the car around, now." Her tone was far more serious than she had planned, the words nearly growled out.

Dean was no fool. He immediately did a U-turn without a care for any cars that may have been passing, driving right back to Sam's apartment. "Kat, what's going on? You okay? I heard you telling Sam the same sort of shit when we were on the phone."

"Something's _wrong_ , Dean. Maybe I'm just crazy...I don't know. But something just doesn't feel right." She was so confused. Before it had just been Constance manipulating something to get her out of the car, hadn't it? So why was a feeling so similar happening now? Certainly, if Constance was _somehow_ still around and had _somehow_ followed them to get Sam like she wanted, she wouldn't give Kat the urge to go back. She hoped she was just crazy from being so tired.

She wasn't.

When they pulled back up to the apartment, smoke and the bright, glowing light from flames could be seen through the window. "Dean—"

"Shit!" He immediately threw the car into park and both of them jumped out instantly, doors forgotten and left hanging open. They had made it to the bottom of the steps before Dean turned around and pushed Kat back. "Stay out here."

"But, Dean, it's—"

"You stay out here!" He looked into her eyes, letting her know just how serious he was. "You understand me?"

"—yes." She hated to agree to staying behind, wanting nothing more than to go in there and get Sam out, but knew Dean wouldn't hesitate to lock her up somewhere. She watched as he ran up the stairs and kicked the door in, calling out for Sam before he headed into the building.

Only seconds had passed, and she was already beginning to pace back and forth, biting her nails nervously. She thought she had felt helpless back in Jericho, weaponless and unable to get into the car and get to Sam. Now both Dean and Sam were inside a burning building and she couldn't do a damn thing without upsetting Dean.

When a minute came and went, she was about ready to run in anyway. She cared about Dean too much to care about upsetting him, which made sense in a roundabout way. She cared more about saving his life than pissing him off.

Just as she was gearing up to go in and save them both, they stumbled out and down the stairs. Dean was practically dragging Sam out as he struggled to go back inside, calling out for his girlfriend in obvious desperation.

"Jess! _Jess_! Get off of me!" He finally tore away from Dean, stumbling away and right into Kat from the force of his release.

She caught him, in a way, both of them falling to the ground. "Sam? Sam?" She cupped his face, trying to get him to look at her. Ghosts were scary. Constance was pretty damn frightening in her own right. But nothing terrified her more than seeing one of her boys as distraught as this.

"Jess..." He whimpered her name pitifully now, voice breaking, and he wasn't even struggling anymore. He had all but given up, sobs leaving his lips and tears pouring down his face, and he didn't put up a fight when Kat brought his face to her chest.

They were hugging, finally, and it was awful. Sam clung to Kat like she was the only thing keeping him from sinking into the ground, his pain radiating from his fingertips in the way they bit into her back through her shirt. She didn't care about the pain, though, too focused on comforting him in all of the worthless ways she could; one arm wrapped around him tightly, while her free hand stroked his hair, and she whispered all of that bullshit nothingness that people always did. Anything to help him. Anything to _try_. Time didn't matter anymore. They could have been separated for a dozen years, and it still wouldn't have made her heart indifferent to his pain.

Her eyes met Dean's over Sam's head, silently asking the question that she already knew the devastating answer to. He nodded. She closed her eyes against the tears that filled them. She couldn't cry for Jess, really, having only known her for a couple days and only spoken to her for less than a minute, but Sam..oh, God, _Sam_. Sam, who was _so good_. Sam, who never wanted anything to do with the cursed life of hunting. Sam, who longed so desperately for a normal life, a _safe_ life where monsters didn't exist and smart kids achieved their dreams. Sam, whose dream was right there for him, waiting to be picked up, only for life to tear it away as if to tell him he would never have that dream. Once a hunter, always a hunter. Happiness is less of a choice and more of a myth.

Someone had apparently called for help at some point, sirens filling the air as trucks and cars pulled up. Firemen rushed around them to do their work, while someone came to ask questions and Dean quickly intercepted, volunteering himself first to give Sam and Kat their peace for the moment.

Sam did stop crying after some time, and once he stopped, you would have never known he had started. He sat there with Kat, practically laying on her, completely still and silent as his sadness morphed into something darker. Something more like his father.

Dean could only answer so many questions before an officer had to walk over, softly asking Kat if she could answer the same questions. She gently untangled herself from Sam, getting up and walking with the officer, telling him something along the lines of what she figured Dean had. Something about a roadtrip, dropping Sam off, coming back when he called in a panic.

The officer thanked her for her time, and went to talk to Sam, and Kat looked around to see that a crowd had gathered to see what was going on. She looked until she spotted Dean, slowly moving over to him. They just looked at each other for a moment, then she quickly hugged him, holding him tightly. "Dean..."

He slowly wrapped his arms around her. "I know, Kit Kat." Over the years, that nickname had grown from just a way to tease her, and sometimes became a way to comfort her. The familiarity of the name was good at keeping her grounded.

"What are we gonna do? Sam...Jess..."

"We'll figure it out. We just gotta take care of Sammy..."

She nodded, closing her eyes tightly. They just had to take care of Sam; like Dean had for practically his whole life, like Kat had those moments when he needed someone to talk to about anything and everything. They were practically experts. Yet they felt like amateurs now that they had to take care of Sam after something as horrible as this.

When she opened her eyes and pulled away from Dean, she saw that Sam was no longer talking to the officer. In fact, she couldn't see him anywhere. She looked up at Dean and he was looking off in another direction, so she followed his gaze. The Impala's trunk was open.

They made there way to the Impala, around to the trunk, where Sam was standing, loading a shotgun. Anger was clear on his face when he looked at them, though it was directed at something else entirely.

"Sam...I'm..." Kat couldn't finish. There was nothing she could say.

Sam just nodded and tossed the gun into the trunk. "We got work to do." He slammed the trunk shut.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we go! There's the pilot, starring Kat. I know she didn't have much to do with the hunt, but she didn't really have a place in this particular one lol. She will definitely be more involved in later hunts, don't worry. And I can't tell you why she can sense things, whether it's her or something more ~supernatural~, but I can tell you that she is not one of Azazel's special children. That would be too much drama lol. I hope you enjoyed.

**Author's Note:**

> There you go! I hope everything wasn't too confusing. There are some big time gaps and hints at things, but of course, flashbacks will likely be entered in somewhere :) Hope everyone enjoyed.


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